Parliament building inauguration: 19 Oppn parties to boycott ceremony, say 'soul of democracy sucked out'

Led by Congress, the opposition feels that the building should have been opened by the President or the Vice President.

An aerial view of the New Parliament House (Photo/ANI)

The Print, 25 May 2023, New Delhi: Nineteen opposition parties have decided to boycott the inauguration of the new Parliament building on 28 May by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Opposition, led by the Congress, has accused the BJP-led central government of insulting the country’s top constitutional post by not asking President India Droupadi Murmu or Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar to inaugurate it.

Announcing its collective decision in a joint statement Wednesday, the parties said: “When the soul of democracy has been sucked out from Parliament, we find no value in a new building.”

The invitation sent out by the Centre says Modi will perform the ceremony in presence of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The event will begin at noon on Sunday.

The Congress, the Trinamool Congress and Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM had already said they would boycott Sunday’s function. They were joined by 16 more parties Wednesday.

These include Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Aam Aadmi Party, Samajwadi Party, Communist Party of India, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Janata Dal (United), Communist Party of India (Marxists) and the National Conference among others.

Chandrashekar Rao’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi has not taken a call yet but is unlikely to attend, said party MP K. Keshava Rao.

The opposition’s joint statement also read: “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… The new Parliament building has been built at great expense during a once-in-a-century pandemic with no consultation with the people of India or MPs, for whom it is apparently being built.”

Meanwhile, the BJP has countered the criticism over Modi’s role Sunday by saying that the President is the Head of State, whereas the Prime Minister is the Head of Government. The PM leads Parliament on behalf of the government, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted, adding, “The President is not a Member of either House, whereas PM is.”

Official sources in the party told news agency ANI that the first big construction in the Parliament complex took place after 1970.

The foundation stone of the Parliament Annexe Building was laid by then President V.V. Giri on 3 August, 1970.

“But the Sansadiya Soudha building was eventually inaugurated by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 24 October, 1975. “That was exactly four months after she had imposed an Emergency, curtailing fundamental rights and ordering the detention of most opposition leaders,” they told ANI.

They added the second big construction in the Parliament complex had the Prime Minister of the day occupying centre-stage. On 15 August, 1987, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had laid the foundation of the Parliament Library building, they said.

Incidentally, the Congress had also boycotted the groundbreaking ceremony of the new building in December 2020. That function too was performed by Modi.