Farmers Movement Archive

Congress MPs skip ceremony

The Congress on Thursday targeted the Narendra Modi government over the proposed new Parliament building, with senior leaders pointing out that India’s democracy is not made by “grand buildings” but its constitutional values. The Congress’s parliamentary leaders stayed away from the ground-breaking ceremony of the building. The party has been critical of the government for proceeding with the Central Vista project in the middle of the pandemic. While former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram tweeted that “the foundation for a new Parliament building was laid on the ruins of a liberal democracy”, his colleague and the Congress’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma, called it a “case of misplaced priorities in times of a pandemic, economic distress and farmers are fighting for justice and their rights in the biting cold”. “Vibrant Democracy is sustained and strengthened not by grand buildings but by nurturing the spirit of India’s hard-earned constitutional democracy which was brazenly assaulted when the farm Bills were rammed through by muzzling the Opposition, using the COVID pandemic as a shield, and in violation of parliamentary rules and established practices,” Mr. Sharma tweeted. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said history would record that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was busy laying the foundation stone when farmers were fighting for their rights on the streets. Congress Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh said the existing Parliament building, built by the British, resembled the Chausath Yogini Temple in Morena (Madhya Pradesh) while the new atmanirbhar Parliament looked like the Pentagon in Washington. On his Twitter handle, Mr. Ramesh shared pictures of the old and new buildings and that of the Pentagon and the Morena temple.

The Hindu

2020-12-11

NEW DELHI