Indian opposition boycotts inauguration of Parliament building

Status: 05/28/2023 3:17 p.m

In rare unanimity, the Indian opposition boycotted the ceremony to inaugurate a parliament building in New Delhi. She accuses Prime Minister Modi of disregarding democracy.

In India, a scandal broke out at the inauguration of a new parliament building: the country’s main opposition parties boycotted the event in protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist ruling party.

Modi inaugurated the new triangular building, estimated to cost $120 million, by saying prayers. Hindu priests, meanwhile, sang religious hymns at the beginning of the ceremony. In his speech, the Hindu nationalist Prime Minister called India the “mother of democracy”. “Several years of foreign rule stole our pride. Today, India has left that colonial mindset behind,” said Modi, who has been in power with his party for years and is seeking a third term in the May 2024 general election.

“Serious insult” to democracy

The opposition parties criticized the event in an open letter, stressing that the prime minister had sidelined President Droupadi Murmu. While the President has only ceremonial powers in India, he is the head of state and the supreme constitutional authority. “Parliament is the voice of the people. The prime minister sees the inauguration of the parliament building as the crowning glory,” criticized former president of the opposition Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi, on Twitter.

At least 19 opposition parties stayed away from the event, which coincided with the birthday of a Hindu nationalism ideologue. The opposition parties said that Modi’s “decision to inaugurate the building himself” represents a “grave insult” to Indian democracy. It was said that “the soul of democracy” was being sucked out of parliament. India’s powerful interior minister, Amit Shah, spoke of an “insult to the prime minister.”

India’s Prime Minister Modi is sensitive to criticism.
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British architecture must give way

The Parliament building is part of a multi-billion dollar revamp of British-era offices and homes in central New Delhi, which also includes Modi’s new private residence. The architectural basis is Indian culture, tradition and symbols. The new construction project aims to trump the prominence of opulent power architecture of the British colonial era with buildings with a strong Indian identity.

It had been announced in 2019; in December 2020 Modi laid the foundation stone. The plan was heavily criticized by opposition politicians, architects and monument protection experts. Many of them called it ecologically irresponsible, a danger to cultural heritage and too expensive.

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