India: inauguration by Modi of the new seat of Parliament, boycotted by the opposition

May 28, 2023

Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new seat of the Indian Parliament in New Delhi on Sunday in a ceremony boycotted by the main opposition parties.

The new hexagonal building is one of the major projects implemented by Mr. Modi to reshape the capital of India and eliminate the vestiges of British domination.

It adjoins the one built in the colonial era by the British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, which it will now replace.

“India is not only a democratic nation, it is also the mother of democracy,” Modi said during the ceremony which was preceded by a multi-faith prayer.

The inauguration of the new building took place on the birthday of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a Hindu ideologue who was the mentor of Godse, the assassin of the country’s independence hero, Mahatma Gandhi.

This meeting was boycotted by nineteen opposition parties, which regret that the project was instrumentalized for partisan ends, with Mr. Modi who presided over the inauguration of the new building, rather than the head of the State, Drupadi Murmu.

This is a “direct attack on our democracy,” they wrote in a statement.

Mr Modi “has relentlessly gutted Parliament”, with opposition MPs “disqualified, suspended and silenced” and laws passed “almost without debate”, the document adds.

In addition, opponents accuse the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Mr Modi’s party, of stifling debate in parliament, deploying tax raids, federal investigations and legal actions to weaken key figures. of the opposition.

The Indian Parliament notably experienced disruption of sessions in February following the blocking by the government of requests from the opposition and the leader of the Congress Rahul Gandhi, in favor of an investigation into the possible links between Mr. Modi and the tycoon Gautam Adani, whose conglomerate has been accused of fraud.

“The Prime Minister regards the inauguration of Parliament as a crowning achievement,” Rahul Gandhi tweeted on Sunday.

On the sidelines of the ceremony, Indian police arrested several wrestlers, including Olympic medalists, as well as dozens of their supporters.

The latter were trying to go to Parliament to protest against the president of their federation whom they accuse of sexual harassment and intimidation, noted an AFP journalist on the spot.