Rama Krishna Sangem
As many as 19 opposition parties have decided to boycott inauguration of new Parliament building on May 28, Sunday. They are protesting against the newly building being opened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, not by President of India Draupadi Murmu. A joint statement to this effect is issued on May 24, Wednesday in Delhi. It is not known, what stand BRS led by Telangana CM KCR will take on this issue.
The Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Trinamool Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the Left, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Janata Dal-United (JDU), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Samajwadi Party, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena faction and others said on Wednesday that they will not be part of the event. Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) also joined the boycott.
The opposition parties have denounced plans by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the new parliament, instead of President Murmu, to make a political statement ahead of next year’s national election. Some of them have also criticised scheduling the event on the birth anniversary of VD Savarkar, the Hindutva ideologue who shared views radically divergent from Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, and had pledged lifelong fealty to the British after prolonged incarceration
“Prime Minister Modi’s decision to inaugurate the new parliament building by himself, completely sidelining President Murmu, is not only a grave insult but a direct assault on our democracy… This undignified act insults the high office of the President and violates the letter and spirit of the constitution. It undermines the spirit of inclusion which saw the nation celebrate its first woman Adivasi President,” the opposition parties said in a statement.
Undemocratic acts are not new to the Prime Minister, who has relentlessly hollowed out the Parliament. Opposition Members of Parliament have been disqualified, suspended and muted when they raised the issues of the people of India… When the soul of democracy has been sucked out from the parliament, we find no value in a new building,” they added.
Amit Shah: “All are invited”
Addressing a news briefing, Union Home Minister Amit Shah declined to comment on the backlash but said, “We have invited everyone. They can decide according to their wisdom.” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi urged opposition parties to reconsider their decision to boycott the ceremony.
Earlier, 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 the 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.
