Ravi Shankar Prasad’s appeal to Congress on Parliament event, then a swipe

NEW DELHI: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday renewed his party’s appeal to the Congress to attend the historic event to be held to formally inaugurate the new Parliament building on May 28 and asked the opposition not to politicise the event.

“Please do attend the event…. Parliament is the crown of India’s democracy; the prime minister is also an important part of parliament,” the former Union minister said at a media briefing on Thursday amid a political row over the event on Sunday. Twenty-one political parties have declared that they will not attend the event because PM Narendra Modi, and not President Droupadi Murmu was going to preside over Sunday’s event. This, the Congress has said, was a humiliation of the President.

Ravi Shankar Prasad said they have absolute respect for the President and do not want to bring the presidential office into a controversy.

Suggesting that the Congress move to boycott the event had nothing to do with the President, Prasad asked rhetorically if the Congress was part of the event to lay the foundation stone for the parliament building in December 2020. Or if they have ever gone to pay their respects to Sardar Patel’s statute in Gujarat, or the military’s memorial at India Gate?

“No. They did not. Because Modi made it. This is their problem,” Prasad said.

Back in December 2020 when PM Modi laid the foundation stone for the new Parliament building, the Congress boycotted the ceremony, criticizing the event at a time farmers were camped outside Delhi in protest against the Centre’s new agriculture laws that were subsequently withdrawn.

On Wednesday, 19 political parties issued a joint statement to announce their decision to boycott the inauguration of the parliament building on May 28, saying that they found no value in a new building “when the soul of democracy has been sucked out of Parliament”. Later, two more parties, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), also said they will stay away from the event.

Opposition parties say that as the President summons, prorogues and addresses Parliament, and her assent is a must for any act to become law, her absence from the event is an insult to her office. “It undermines the spirit of inclusion which saw the nation celebrate its first woman adivasi President,” the statement added.

The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) hit back at the opposition parties, saying this was not the first instance of such disdain by the opposition and that it was “just another feather in their cap of disregard for democratic processes”.

The new Parliament was built at a cost of ₹1,200 crore and aimed at a facelift and amenities not available at the iconic colonial-era building next door that served as India’s Parliament for 75 years after being opened in 1927.

A two-hour-long programme with multi-faith prayers and a guest list that includes all members of Parliament (MPs) and chief ministers is scheduled for the inauguration on Sunday at 12 noon. Modi will lead the ceremony inside the new Lok Sabha chamber that can accommodate nearly 900 people. The programme will also showcase modern facilities of the new building that is likely to start functioning from the monsoon session in July.

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