New parliament goes live with Modi signature
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, May 28: Prime Minister Narendra Modi installed the Sengol near the seat of the Lok Sabha Speaker in his bid to send out a message of new beginning for the country, as he inaugurated the new parliament on Sunday after days of slugfest over the origin of the insignia of the ‘transfer of power’ between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.
Modi has said that his government will be remembered for having built the new parliament. His party most often underlines that the “Modi government conceives a project and also inaugurates it”. Modi had laid the foundation stone for the new parliament building, and a year before he completes his send term also inaugurated the house of the people.
The new parliament building is the first to go live after the completion as a vast part of the expanse around is witnessing fast-paced construction work. The Central Vista project, expected to take another two years, is also a signature Modi project to overhaul the way the bureaucracy of the Central government works, at least in the way they run the offices, will take another two years, and the incumbent prime minister would need to win the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to get his name on the wall for the unveiling.
But the Opposition parties stayed away from the fanfare of the inauguration of the new parliament building. The sympathizers of the wrestlers, Olympian medalists who are squatting at the Jantar Mantar for over one months, wanted to hold a Mahapanchayat at the entry gate of the new parliament building, but they have been shooed away by the security personnel.
A day before the inauguration of the new parliament, 11 chief ministers of the Opposition-ruled states skipped the Governing Council meeting of the NITI Aayog, which is headed by the prime minister, while being the principal think tank of the Central government.
The parliament is called the house of the people. Yet, the momentous day of the inauguration of the new parliament was also marred by the sparring between the ruling BJP and the Opposition. Deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha Harivansh would read out the message of President Droupadi Murmu, who along with the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, constitutes the parliament to the members of house. The Congress had demanded that Murmu should inaugurate the new parliament after Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla invited the prime minister for the unveiling of the building. The conventional saying in the way the parliament functions is that “the Opposition should have its say, and they government should have the way”. It means that the Opposition should have ample scope to raise issues of the public interest, while the government business to conduct affairs of governance should be aided.
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