By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2023-05-28 07:50:21
Calling it "cradle of empowerment" Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the grand and inspiring new Parliament building in New Delhi today with a havan and a multi-faith prayer meet preceding the actual inauguration. The Prime Minister also placed the sengol (spectre), which has been at the centre of a huge controversy, in the new Parliament near the Speaker's chair. Although there was broad consensus between political parties since the last 20 years that the nation needed a new parliament building and the Congress-led UPA discussed the project, it could not conceive and carry it through. The NDA government has, despite controversies and criticism, taken up the Central Vista project and given the nation a Parliament to be proud of.
The inauguration was marked by controversies as 21 major opposition parties stayed away as they wanted President Draupadi Murmu to inaugurate the building. They were also protesting against the other policies of the government. Post the ceremony, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that Modi has hijacked the inauguration as he thinks it is a 'coronation'. Bihar's RJD compared the shape of the new building with a coffin, drawing angry responses from BJP leaders and netizens.
It is regrettable and a sign of the polarization that has cemented its place in Indian polity that the ruling dispensation and the opposition could not mend fences and stand united on this historic occasion. It was a proud moment for the nation as it shed its colonial past and its lawmakers will move to a new building that has been designed by an Indian architect and constructed in record time. Both the ruling party and the opposition are guilty of showing an inflexible attitude that has lowered the dignity of the proud occasion.