New Parliament building inauguration: ‘Opposition boycott shameful’

NEW DELHI: Veteran Naga leader and former Chief Minister of Nagaland, SC Jamir on Sunday described the inauguration of new Parliament building in the national capital as "definitely a Red Letter Day", while BJP vice president M. Chuba Ao, who hails from Nagaland, termed the Opposition boycott "shameful".

"It was an emotional occasion for me," Jamir said, while also underlining that he disapproved the politics around it. "The inaugural show should have been an occasion to demonstrate before the world that democracy is deeply rooted in the very life of India but sadly we have miss this golden historical occasion through partisan politics which is sad," he told this correspondent.

Chuba Ao on Sunday flayed the Congress and other opposition parties for staying away from the historic occasion of inauguration of new Parliament building and called it "shameful".

"They (20 opposition parties) stayed away from the grand occasion which comes in a century or two. Political historians will remember the historic blunder by the opposition parties – especially the Congress," he said. "The wise leaders of the grand old party should have applied a better sense of judgement and come out of their 'Hate Narendra Modi' agenda," he said.

Chuba further said: "The boycott was a shameful move. The Congress itself does not have a very good history of showing respect to Constitutional offices and even the office of President of India".

Elaborating further on this, he said while Congress boycotted on the pretext that President Droupadi Murmu should have inaugurated the newly-installed iconic building, the party seems to have memory lapses on its own conduct. "During the time of (former prime minister) Manmohan Singh, an ordinance signed by the President was dismissed as an ordinary piece of paper by Rahul Gandhi – who is today the face of the Indian National Congress," he said.

He also referred to the "unfortunate chapter" when the then President (in the eighties) had said: "If my leader had asked me to sweep her floor I would have done so."

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has aptly given India a Swadeshi Parliament, and every Indian will be proud of this for generations to come. In their boycott, the opposition parties have displayed a slavish mentality to continue with the British legacy. The 'New India' is not ready for that and the negative politics will be discarded," Chuba Ao maintained.

Referring to Modi government's completion of nine years in office, he said: "The governance formula guided by 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' vision of the Prime Minister lays emphasis on irreversible empowerment of marginalised sections and poor. This has changed the perception about life and on the elements of governance from the poorer and deprived sections."

"People have developed a new taste for new aspirations in New India and people will not be happy to remain contented with the good old theory of luck," he said.

Meanwhile, SC Jamir said, "It is definitely a Red Letter Day. It was an emotional occasion for me as I remember 1947 and also 1950 when we turned into Republic and later in 1960 when the Naga issue was discussed and debated in detail in Parliament." However, he hastened to add: "Politicization around the great occasion should have been avoided. I will firmly say everything should not be politicized and we have to keep in mind that Parliament is a national institute." IANS

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