The Congress and other opposition parties on Sunday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he inaugurated the new Parliament building.
Modi inaugurated the new Parliament building on Sunday morning even as around 20 opposition parties, including the Congress, boycotted the event alleging that President Droupadi Murmu has been denied the right to inaugurate the building and called it an insult to India's first woman president from the tribal community.
Wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia were detained along with others after a scuffle broke out between the protesters and the Delhi Police at Jantar Mantar after they were seeking to move towards the Parliament.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said democracy does not run from the buildings but functions through the voice of the people. He also attacked the government over the "forcible" removal and "manhandling" of wrestlers protesting at the Jantar Mantar when they were trying to march towards Parliament.
"The right to inaugurate the new Parliament was snatched from the President. Women players were beaten up on the streets with dictatorial force," he said in a tweet in Hindi.
"The three lies of the BJP-RSS rulers now stand exposed before the country -- democracy, nationalism and Beti Bachao. Remember Modi ji, democracy does not run from the buildings but functions through the voice of the public," Kharge said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said Parliament is the voice of the people but the prime minister is treating the inauguration of the new building like a "coronation". "Parliament is the voice of the people! The prime minister is treating the inauguration of the Parliament House as (a) coronation," Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi soon after Modi inaugurated the building.
Jairam Ramesh, the Congress general secretary, said, "On this day, May 28th: Nehru, the person who did the most to nurture Parliamentary democracy in India, was cremated in 1964. Savarkar, the person whose ideological ecosystem led to the killing of Mahatma Gandhi, was born in 1883."
Ramesh also said it is on the same day that President Droupadi Murmu -- the first woman from the tribal community to become president -- is not allowed to perform her Constitutional duties and inaugurate the new Parliament building. "A self-glorifying authoritarian Prime Minister with utter disdain for Parliamentary procedures, who rarely attends Parliament or engages in it, inaugurates the new Parliament building in 2023," he said.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar said that various religious rituals performed at the inauguration of the new Parliament building by Prime Minister Narendra Modi show that the country was being taken backwards.
He said the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had envisaged a society having a scientific temperament, but the rituals conducted during the opening of the new Parliament complex were contrary to his vision.
PM Modi inaugurated the new building this morning at a grand ceremony which included a havan, a multi-faith prayer ceremony and the installation of the Sengol in a special enclosure in the Lok Sabha chamber.
Speaking to reporters in Pune, Pawar said, "There is a huge difference between the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru talking about the concept of modern India and a series of rituals performed at the new Parliament building today in New Delhi. I fear that we are taking our country backward by decades. One cannot compromise on science. Nehru was persistent about his wish to form a society with a scientific temperament. But what is happening today at the inaugural ceremony of the new Parliament building is exactly the opposite of what Nehru had envisaged," he said.
Expressing his disappointment over the absence of the president and the vice president at the inauguration ceremony, the former Union minister said, "The president is the head of the state, while the vice president is the head of the Rajya Sabha. They should have been invited to this event. The functioning of Parliament commences with the speech of the president. Then why were they not invited?" Pawar asked.