President Or PM? Opposition vs Government Over New Parliament Opening

A heated debate has broken out between leaders of the ruling BJP and the Opposition in the run-up to the grand inauguration of the new parliament building by Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday.

As the centre races against time to complete preparations for the grand event, the Opposition has threatened to stay away, questioning why the President was not inaugurating the new parliament building. The criticism has drawn a sharp retort from the centre and the BJP.

The grand opening, it is learnt, will be marked by chanting of hymns, a havan and a puja. The rituals, it is learnt, will start in the morning and the main programme is scheduled for noon.

Besides Prime Minister Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will be present during the grand opening, which will be held on the lines of the ground-breaking ceremony in 2020.

The invitation card for the event states that the event will begin at noon and requests the invitees to take their seats by 11.30 am. 

The countdown to the grand event has been marked by sharp exchanges between the leaders of the BJP and the Opposition.

The most scathing attack on the government has come from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. "It looks like the Modi Govt has ensured election of President of India from the Dalit and the Tribal communities only for electoral reasons," he tweeted yesterday.

"While Former President, Shri Kovind was not invited for the New Parliament foundation laying ceremony...the President of India Smt. Droupadi Murmu is not being invited for the inauguration of the new Parliament Building," Mr Kharge added.

The parliament, the veteran Congress leader said, is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India and the President is its highest Constitutional authority. "She alone represents government, opposition, and every citizen alike. She is the First Citizen of India.

Inauguration of the new Parliament building by her will symbolise Government's commitment to Democratic values and Constitutional propriety," Mr Kharge said.

Earlier, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi too said that the new parliament building should be inaugurated by the President.

The Congress chief's remarks were echoed by several senior party leaders, including MPs Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari, who agreed that as per the Constitution, the President is the head of parliament. Leaders of other Opposition parties, including CPI's D Raja, AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi and RJD's Manoj Kumar Jha have also criticised the plan for the new building's inauguration by the Prime Minister.

In a sharp counter attack, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri accused the Opposition leaders of misquoting from the Constitution.

"From criticising the New Parliament Building & questioning its very necessity despite many of them advocating for it before but not executing it, Congress President & other worthies are now shifting the goalpost by generously misquoting an article a day from the Constitution!," Mr Puri tweeted.

In the summer of 2020, the Opposition had come out strongly against the huge expenditure on the Central Vista project - of which the new parliament building is a part -, arguing that it could have waited till the nation emerged from the crushing impact of the Covid pandemic and the lockdown imposed to contain it.

Mr Puri questioned why the Opposition can't join in "celebrating this creation of a valuable asset for posterity, as the New India's temple of the mother of all democracies & jettison the prolonged sulk & indulgence in partisan polemics based on falsehoods".

He also referred to the inauguration of Parliament Annexe by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975 and the laying of the foundation of Parliament library by her son and successor Rajiv Gandhi and said the Congress was "finding articles to justify their hypocrisy".

Earlier, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia taunted Rahul Gandhi, calling him a "cry baby" who "starts beating his chest" during every historic moment for the country.

"Why does this happen? When the country is progressing, he comes forward as a bad omen during auspicious times. He has such small thinking that he can't welcome such a historic moment when the new Parliament building will become a temple of democracy," the BJP leader said yesterday.