New Delhi: The opposition might be completely unrepresented at the inauguration of India’s new parliament in New Delhi on Sunday, with 19 parties announcing a boycott.
Nineteen opposition parties, including the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Trinamool Congress, the Left, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena on Wednesday said they will not be part of the event, NDTV reported.
The opposition parties have denounced plans by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the new parliament, instead of President Droupadi Murmu, as well as to schedule it on the birth anniversary of VD Savarkar, the Hindutva ideologue who shared views radically divergent from Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation.
Trinamool: Its leader in Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien wrote on Twitter, “Parliament is not just a new building; it is an establishment with old traditions, values, precedents and rules — it is the foundation of Indian democracy. Prime Minister Modi doesn’t get that. For him, Sunday’s inauguration of the new building is all about I, ME, MYSELF. So count us out.”
Aam Aadmi Party: MP Sanjay Singh tweeted, “Not inviting President Droupadi Murmu to the inauguration of the new Parliament building is a great insult to her. This is also an insult to the tribals. The Aam Aadmi party will boycott the inauguration function in protest of Modi ji not inviting the President.”
Communist Party of India: General Secretary D Raja said his party will not attend the ceremony.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M): It accused PM Modi of “bypassing” the President for not just laying the foundation stone for the new parliament building, but also inaugurating it himself.
Congress: Accusing the government of disrespecting constitutional propriety and demanding that President Droupadi Murmu inaugurate the new parliament building, instead of PM Modi, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “SUV-Self-Usurped Vishwaguru-has already annexe-d the Parliament for self-aggrandisement. But surely, there is a fundamental difference between inaugurating an Annexe where officials work and a library which is hardly used on the one hand, and inaugurating not just the Temple of Democracy but its sanctum sanctorum itself.”
What the government said:
Hitting back, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday accused the Congress of lacking “national spirit and sense of pride” in India’s progress. He said former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had inaugurated the Parliament Annexe building on October 24, 1975, and successor Rajiv Gandhi had laid the foundation of the parliament library on August 15, 1987. “If your head of government can inaugurate Parliament annexe and library, then why can’t the head of the government of this time do? It’s as simple as that,” he said.
Why the new parliament building?
The government has said India’s current parliament building was built under British rule in 1927 and has grown too small. Laying the foundation stone of the new building in December 2020, PM Modi has said it would be an intrinsic part of a “self-reliant India”. It will accommodate 888 members in the lower house and 300 members in the upper house, as compared to the current 543 and 250, respectively, and is part of the Modi government’s plan to redevelop the historical heart of New Delhi called the Central Vista.
