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Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has criticised the BJP government for “not allowing” President Droupadi Murmu to fulfil her Constitutional duties by inaugurating the new Parliament building on Sunday.
“The President — the first Adivasi to become President — is not allowed to fulfil her Constitutional duties and inaugurate the New Parliament building in 2023,” Ramesh tweeted on Sunday morning during the inauguration of the new Parliament building by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- Also read: PM Modi dedicates new Parliament building to the nation, ‘Sengol’ placed in Lok Sabha chamber
“A self-glorifying authoritarian Prime Minister with utter disdain for Parliamentary procedures, who rarely attends Parliament or engages in it, inaugurates the New Parliament building in 2023,” the tweet said.
The ‘Sengol’ controversy
Last week, Ramesh had taken on the government over its claim that the sceptre ‘Sengol’, a Tamil artefact and a symbol of power and fair governance of the Chola reign, was also a symbol of the transfer of power from the British to the first elected government of independent India in 1947.
- Also read: A look at the carpets for the new Parliament
He said that while a majestic sceptre, conceived of by a religious establishment in then Madras province and crafted in Madras city was indeed presented to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in August 1947, there was no documented evidence of Nehru and then Governor General Lord Mountbatten treating it as a symbol of the transfer of power from the British to India.
“Fabrication of facts by Distorians and the drum-beating of the media hits new lows in 2023,” Ramesh said in his Sunday tweet.
The Sengol, which symbolises dharma and the duty of lawmakers towards the common people, was handed over by priests of Madurai Adheenam to Modi on Saturday, ahead of the inauguration of the new building.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi walks into the Lok Sabha chamber of the new Parliament building, in New Delhi, Sunday, May 28, 2023. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla is also seen. (PIB Photo)
Modi, accompanied by Speaker Om Birla, installed the Sengol next to the Speaker’s chair in the Lok Sabha chamber of the new Parliament on Sunday during the inauguration.
“This Sengol will keep reminding us that we have to walk on the path of duty and remain answerable to the public,” Modi said on Saturday while addressing Adheenams (priests) who handed over the sceptre to him.
In his tweet, Ramesh noted that May 28 was the day when 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 (on May 28), he added.
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