The new inauguration of new Parliament row has resulted into a row with Opposition raising questions over its opening by PM Narendra Modi instead of President Droupadi Murmu.
The move seems to have united Opposition with several political parties including Congress saying that they will not attend the inauguration ceremony.
At least 19 Opposition parties, including the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Trinamool Congress, the Left, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena on Wednesday said they will not be part of the event.
Besides, the Opposition has also questioned the inauguration of the opening date on May 28, which coincides with the birth anniversary of VD Savarkar, the Hindutva ideologue who shared views radically divergent from Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation.
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TMC leader Derek O'Brien said: "Parliament is not just a new building; it is an establishment with old traditions, values, precedents and rules -- it is the foundation of Indian democracy. Prime Minister Modi doesn't get that. For him, Sunday's inauguration of the new building is all about I, ME, MYSELF. So count us out."
Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh said: "Not inviting President Droupadi Murmu to the inauguration of the new Parliament building is a great insult to her. This is also an insult to the tribals. The Aam Aadmi party will boycott the inauguration function in protest of Modi ji not inviting the President."
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Communist Party of India general secretary D Raja also said his party will not attend the ceremony.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) accused PM Modi of "bypassing" the President for not just laying the foundation stone for the new parliament building, but also inaugurating it himself.
The Congress has accused the government of disrespecting constitutional propriety and demanded that President Droupadi Murmu inaugurate the new parliament building, instead of PM Modi.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, "SUV-Self-Usurped Vishwaguru-has already annexe-d the Parliament for self-aggrandisement. But surely, there is a fundamental difference between inaugurating an Annexe where officials work and a library which is hardly used on the one hand, and inaugurating not just the Temple of Democracy but its sanctum sanctorum itself."
Hitting back, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday accused the Congress of lacking "national spirit and sense of pride" in India's progress. He said former
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had inaugurated the Parliament Annexe building on October 24, 1975, and successor Rajiv Gandhi had laid the foundation of the parliament library on August 15, 1987. "If your head of government can inaugurate Parliament annexe and library, then why can't the head of the government of this time do? It's as simple as that," he said.
Laying the foundation stone of the new building in December 2020, PM Modi has said it would be an intrinsic part of a "self-reliant India".
