Opposition to the boycott of the opening of Parliament

1. 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 The Shiv Sena faction and others said Wednesday they would not participate in the event.

2. Opposition parties have denounced Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plans to inaugurate the new parliament, in place of President Draupadi Murmu, to make a political statement ahead of next year’s national elections.

3. Some of them also criticized the timing of the event on the birthday of VD Savarkar, the Hindutva ideologue who shared radically different views of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation. , and had pledged lifelong loyalty to the British after prolonged incarceration.

4. “Prime Minister Modi’s decision to inaugurate the new parliament building himself, completely ousting President Murmu, is not only a grave insult but a direct attack on our democracy… This outrageous act insults the high office of president and violates the letter and spirit of the constitution. It undermines the spirit of inclusion that saw the nation celebrate its first female adivasi president,” the opposition parties said in a statement.

5. “Undemocratic acts are nothing new to the Prime Minister, who has tirelessly gutted Parliament. Opposition MPs have been disqualified, suspended and muted when they raised the issues of the Indian people…When the soul of democracy has been sucked out of parliament, we find no value in a new building,” they added.

6. Addressing a press conference, Union Home Secretary 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.

7. Earlier, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday accused Congress of lacking “national spirit and sense of pride” in India’s progress. He said former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi opened the Parliament Annex building on October 24, 1975, and her successor Rajiv Gandhi laid the foundations of the Parliament Library on August 15, 1987. “If your head of government can inaugurate the annex and the library of Parliament, so why can’t the head of government at that time do it? It’s as simple as that,” he said.

8. Senior Congressman Jairam Ramesh countered: “SUV – self-usurped Vishwaguru – has already annexed parliament for self-aggrandizement. But surely there is a fundamental difference between the inauguration of an annex where officials and a library that is barely used on the one hand, and inaugurating not only the Temple of Democracy but its sanctum sanctorum itself.”

9. From its cost to the unusual ferocity of the lions in the national emblem atop the building, the construction of the new parliament – announced in 2020 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic – has found itself mired in controversy.

10. The government said the current Indian parliament building was built under British rule in 1927 and had become too small. When laying the foundation stone for the new building in December 2020, Prime Minister Modi said it would be an integral part of a “self-reliant India”. It will house 888 members in the lower house and 300 members in the upper house, up from the current 543 and 250, respectively, and is part of the Modi government’s plan to redevelop the historic heart of New Delhi called Central Vista.

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