New Delhi [India], May 25 : Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday lashed out at the Congress for objecting to the inauguration of the new Parliament building by Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that with such actions the opposition party will surely "fade into oblivion."
"...I find it very difficult to have an intelligent conversation with them (Congress) on that...They say something else when they meet us and something entirely different for public consumption. I think they are slowly but surely ensuring they will fade into oblivion...." Hardeep Puri told ANI.
"Agar unhone Parliament banaya hota toh innagurate kar sakte the na? (If they had built the Parliament they could have innagurated it), Puri said.
The union minister had a day earlier in a press briefing in the national capital pointed out that In August 1975, then PM Indira Gandhi inaugurated the Parliament Annexe, and later in 1987 PM Rajiv Gandhi inaugurated the Parliament Library. "If your (Congress) head of government can inaugurate them, why can't our head of government do the same?," Puri asked.
He said that the boycott of the inaugural of the Parliament building stems from "both gross and misrepresentation of the nature of the occasion."
"...You are celebrating India the mother of democracies the largest democracy, now the fifth largest economy in the world going in the direction of the third-largest economy in the world and you want to disassociate yourself from that? You are disassociating yourself from India, what is Indian civilization, culture and democracy," said Hardeep Puri while talking totoday.
Union Minister RK Singh also criticised the opposition parties decision to boycott the new Parliament building inauguration.
"These people (opposition) have no validation for the sanctity of the Parliament...they have boycotted the President's address numerous times. They have constantly been disrupting the Parliament...they have no respect for the Parliament. This is a great occasion for the country and the opposition is playing divisive politics," Singh said on Opposition's decision to boycott the inauguration.
Maharashtra Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis also pointed out that the Congress had gone ahead with the inauguration of the Parliament Annexe by the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
"It is being said that the President should inaugurate the new Parliament building, so why it didn't come up when Indira Gandhi inaugurated the Parliament Annexe?," Fadnavis asked.
In Chennai, Union Finance Minister said the Opposition parties should rethink their decision to boycott the opening of the new Parliament building.
"It's a temple of democracy, even the PM entered the Parliament by bowing on its steps. I humbly request and appeal (to the Opposition), kindly re-think, change your stand and participate in the ceremony," Sitharaman said.
Opposition parties, including the Congress, have said they will boycott the ceremony to unveil the new Parliament building. The opposition said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to inaugurate the building without President Droupadi Murmu "insults the high office of the President, and violates the letter and spirit of the Constitution".
The opposition parties said in the statement that the new Parliament building has been built "at great expense during a once-in-a-century pandemic with no consultation with the people of India or MPs, for whom it is apparently being built."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the new Parliament Building on December 10, 2020.
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