execvp system call??

in below program why was new_args[0], rather than the reference the_cmd, passed to the execvp system call?

Code:

/*
    A _very_ limited shell program
*/
#include <iostream>
#include <cstdio>
#include <cstring>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <unistd.h>
using namespace std;

const int MAX    =256;
const int CMD_MAX=10;
char *valid_cmds = " ls  ps  df ";
int
main( ){
  char  line_input[MAX], the_cmd[CMD_MAX];
  char  *new_args[CMD_MAX], *cp;
  int   i;
  while (1) {
    cout << "cmd> ";
    if (cin.getline(line_input, MAX, '\n') != NULL) {
      cp = line_input;
      i  = 0;
      if ((new_args[i] = strtok(cp, " ")) != NULL) {
        strcpy(the_cmd, new_args[i]);
        strcat(the_cmd, " ");
        if ((strstr(valid_cmds, the_cmd) - valid_cmds) % 4 == 1) {
          do {
            cp = NULL;
            new_args[++i] = strtok(cp, " ");
          } while (i < CMD_MAX && new_args[i] != NULL);
          new_args[i] = NULL;
          switch (fork( )) {
          case 0:
            execvp(new_args[0], new_args);
            perror("exec failure");
            exit(1);
          case -1:
            perror("fork failure");
            exit(2);
          default:
            // In the parent we should be waiting for
            // the child to finish
            ;
          }
        } else
          cout << "huh?" << endl;
      }
    }
  }
}

Because the author wanted too. You should ask him.