New Parliament Building: Opposition Launches Scathing Attack On PM Modi

The Congress on Sunday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he inaugurated the new Parliament building, saying that a "self-glorifying authoritarian PM with utter disdain for parliamentary procedures" has opened the new complex. Meanwhile, the NCP said that without the presence of the Opposition, the event remained incomplete.

Taking to micro-blogging platform Twitter, Congress senior leader Jairam Ramesh said,''On this day, May 28: Nehru, the person who did the most to nurture Parliamentary democracy in India, was cremated in 1964. Savarkar, the person whose ideological ecosystem led to the killing of Mahatma Gandhi, was born in 1883 and on this very day President Droupadi Murmu - the first Adivasi to become President - is not allowed to fulfill her constitutional duties and inaugurate the new Parliament building."

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal took a dig at the BJP over the party describing the Sengol as a symbol of transfer of power from the British, saying that in India the transfer of power is through the will of the people who gave themselves this Constitution.

His remarks come amid a war of words between the Congress and the BJP over the history of the Sengol with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying it was a symbol of the transfer of power from the British in 1947 and should have gotten its due respect after Independence, but was kept on display as a ''walking stick'' at Anand Bhawan in Prayagraj.

The Congress has claimed there was no documentary evidence of Lord Mountbatten, C Rajagopalachari and Jawaharlal Nehru describing the Sengol as a symbol of transfer of power from the British to India.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also registered his protest against the PM inaugurating the Parliament. He said that PM Modi is treating inauguration of the Parliament House as a coronation.

The RJD has sparked a significant controversy due to its tweet featuring a coffin, drawing widespread criticism for its perceived insensitivity. The party compared it to a coffin, tweeting a picture of a coffin and the Parliament side by side.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the new Parliament building was akin to ''I only love myself day'', TMC MP Derek O'Brien said and accused the government of mocking and insulting the House in the past nine years.

''Now that PM Modi is done with his 'I Only Love Myself Day', let us remind him of how he and his government have mocked and insulted Parliament in the last nine years,'' O'Brien said in a tweet.

The TMC was among the first parties to announce that it was staying away from Sunday's inauguration. Around 20 Opposition parties decided to boycott the event over the prime minister and not the president inaugurating the building.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated the new Parliament building and expressed hope that it will become a cradle of empowerment, igniting dreams and nurturing them into reality. Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla accompanied the Prime Minister during the ceremony that began with Puja.

Amid Vedic chants by priests from Karnataka's Shringeri Math, the prime minister performed ''Ganapati Homam'' to invoke divine blessings. The prime minister prostrated before the Sengol and sought blessings from high priests of various Adheenams in Tamil Nadu with the holy sceptre in hand.

Modi then carried the Sengol in a procession amid tunes of nadaswaram and chanting of Vedic mantras to the new Parliament building and installed it in a special enclosure on the right side of the Speaker's chair in the Lok Sabha chamber.