Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to inaugurate the new parliament building on May 28. The new parliament building will be the seat of the highest legislative body of the largest democracy in the world. PM Modi and his government want the new parliament building to be the centre of legislative activity. However, before the big inauguration on Sunday, a political row erupted in the country.
Opposition parties in India have alleged that there was not any requirement to spend millions of rupees to construct the new building when the country had other issues to deal with. As per a report in BBC, the cost of constructing the new building has come to Rs 9.7 billion ($117.1 million, £94.2 million).
PM Modi has spoken highly about the project and has said that this would be 'the first parliament building built by Indians'. The opposition, on the other hand, has maintained that instead of constructing a new structure it was possible for the government to make improvements in the current building.
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The opposition has also said that the new building was an attempt to reduce the symbolism of the current one in which independent India's constitution was adopted. BJP has denied all allegations made by the opposition.
The inauguration of the new parliament is on May 28 which is also the birth anniversary of VD Savarkar, a figure connected with India's freedom struggle.
Another point that the opposition has raised is that the President of India Droupadi Murmu should be inaugurating the new parliament building as the President's constitutional post outranks a prime minister. Many are seeing the inauguration by PM Modi as an attempt to make a political statement.
The President of India Smt. Droupadi Murmu is not being invited to the inauguration of the new Parliament Building. As of now, a total of nineteen opposition parties had decided to boycott the inauguration of the new parliament building.
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Some of the parties which have decided to boycott the event are the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Left, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Janata Dal-United (JDU), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Samajwadi Party, Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena faction.
On this, India's Home Minister Amit Shah decided not to comment and has said that decision to attend the ceremony was their own.
"We have invited everyone. They can decide according to their wisdom," said Shah. He was quoted by news outlet NDTV.
The opposition has also received backlash from other leaders. Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday accused the Congres lacked "national spirit and sense of pride" in India's progress.
"If your head of government can inaugurate the Parliament annex and library, then why can't the head of the government of this time do? It's as simple as that," he said as quoted by NDTV.
