Modi opens India’s new parliament as opposition boycotts

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated a new parliament building in New Delhi in a grand ceremony that has been boycotted by more than a dozen opposition parties.

Modi on Sunday opened the new parliament building, which he called “a cradle of empowerment,” by offering prayers as Hindu priests sang religious hymns at the start of the ceremony.

“The new parliament is not just a building; it is the symbol of the aspiration of the 140 crore [1.4 billion] people of India,” Modi said in a post-inauguration speech, which comes a year before parliamentary elections in the world’s most populous nation and as Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seeks a third term in office.

“This new complex will be proof of a self-sufficient India,” he said.

The new parliament building is part of a plan by Modi’s Hindu nationalist government to revamp British colonial-era architecture, including the old parliament building, which is likely to be converted into a museum.

Historian Mridula Mukherjee says that the old parliament building is more Indian than the new one.

“The colonial-era buildings they refer to…built in the 1920s incorporate many elements of Indian architecture. It was not a purely Western architectural model at all,” Mukherjee told Al Jazeera from New Delhi.

“Actually, in my opinion, the new building doesn’t have much to recommend in terms of aesthetics… there’s nothing Indian about it.

“What’s more important is that it’s all happening in a way that’s very random. From the conception of this building, architects, designers and planners have objected to it, but their dissent and objections have been overruled.”

‘Insult’ to Indian democracy

Opposition parties criticized the event, saying the prime minister sidelined President Droupadi Murmu, who has only ceremonial powers but is the head of state and the highest constitutional authority.

Modi’s “decision to inaugurate the building alone” was “a grave affront” to Indian democracy, opposition parties said in a statement on Wednesday. little debate.

“If the soul of democracy has been sucked out of parliament, we will find no value in a new building,” the parties said.

“Opening a new parliament building without the opposition does not mean that there is a democracy in the country. It is an incomplete event,” Supriya Sule, an opposition leader, told ANI news agency.

The Modi government has rejected the opposition’s argument, saying no protocol has been broken and that the prime minister respects the constitutional head of the country.

Home Minister Amit Shah said the opposition has politicized the event, and other leaders from Modi’s party described the boycott as “an affront to the prime minister”.

The new triangular building, constructed at an estimated cost of $120 million, is part of a $2.8 billion refurbishment of British-era offices and housing in the capital, which will also include blocks of buildings to house government ministries and departments. government and Modi’s new private residence. The entire project, called the Central Vista, is 2 miles long.

The parliament complex is located opposite the old round monumental building which was built in 1927 by British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, two decades before India’s independence.

The new parliament has 1,272 seats in two chambers, almost 500 more than the previous building, and at least three times the space to house new legislators.

The project was announced in 2019 and Modi laid the foundation stone a year later in December 2020.

The plan has drawn widespread criticism from opposition politicians, architects and heritage experts, many of whom have called it environmentally irresponsible, a threat to cultural heritage and too costly.

Outrage grew in 2021 when at least 12 opposition parties questioned the project’s timing, saying it was being built as the country faced a devastating wave of COVID-19 cases. They labeled the revamp as Modi’s “vanity project” and said construction was prioritized over saving lives and livelihoods during the pandemic.

The Modi government said the revamp was necessary because the older building “showed signs of distress and overuse” and the new design “combines the country’s heritage and traditions”.

At Sunday’s televised ceremony, Modi prostrated himself before a golden royal scepter that his BJP says symbolized the handover of power when it was given to India’s first prime minister on the eve of India’s independence from Britain in 1947.

Dozens of Hindu priests followed Modi into parliament, where he installed the scepter by the speaker’s chair.

Modi’s critics and opposition leaders have questioned the scepter’s historical authenticity, saying the emblem befits a monarchy, not a democracy.

Opposition party leader Rahul Gandhi accused Modi of viewing the inauguration as a royal occasion.

“Parliament is the voice of the people,” Gandhi tweeted. “The prime minister treats the inauguration of the parliament building as a coronation.”

Modi’s supporters see the new parliament as his attempt to recreate India’s power corridor and disrupt the country’s colonial legacy.

Last year, Modi opened a revamped colonial avenue in the heart of New Delhi that is used for military parades. The boulevard used to be called “Rajpath” or Kingsway, but Modi’s party changed it to “Kartavya Path”, or Road to Duty, arguing that the old name was a “symbol of slavery” that was “erased forever”.