19 opposition parties boycott new Parliament House program, say – Inauguration should be done by President, not by PM

Delhi: New building of Parliament house has been constructed and its ready. PM Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the new Parliament building on May 28. Meanwhile, politics has heated up regarding the inauguration. Opposition parties including Congress, Left parties and Aam Aadmi Party say that it should not be inaugurated by the PM but by the President of India. The opposition has also accused the Modi government of hurting the dignity of the President. 19 opposition parties including Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Uddhav Thackeray faction, NCP, RJD, JD(U) have declared that they will not attend the ceremony and will boycott it.

According to Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal, it weakens the President and democratic system of India. You are undermining democratic principles and protocols, so the Congress party spoke to all like-minded political parties and they have agreed to boycott the program. If the President inaugurates the new Parliament House, you (the Prime Minister) can be present there as a chief guest but you do not want them (the President and the Vice President) to be present.

On the other hand, Sanjay Raut, the leader of the Uddhav faction, said that this (old) Parliament House is historical and neither the RSS nor the BJP has any relation with this Parliament House. The expenditure is being incurred only to write ‘inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’ on the plaque. The President, the custodian of the Constitution, is not being invited. Hence, the opposition parties of the country have decided to boycott the inauguration ceremony. Draupadi Murmu was made the President in the name of a tribal woman, but she is not allowed to come out of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

According to Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh, not inviting the President of the country to the inauguration of the new Parliament is an insult to the tribal society, Dalit society, backward society and it shows that BJP’s mentality is anti-tribal, anti-Dalit and anti-backward. Otherwise, if you are not inviting the President for the inauguration of the Parliament, then what message do you want to give? AAP party will boycott this program and we will not attend the program.

Attacking the Modi government, Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav said that we have talked to all the people, we will boycott it. We believe that the new Parliament should be inaugurated by the President of India because the head of the Parliament is the President and not inaugurating the parliament house by him, he is being insulted.

According to TMC MP Saugat Roy, I have come to know that our Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien tweeted that TMC has decided to boycott the inauguration ceremony of the new Parliament House. The reason for this is that we feel that the President should inaugurate the Parliament house and not the Prime Minister, it is against the Constitution.