Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Thursday welcomed the new Parliament building inauguration and slammed the Opposition parties for boycotting the launch, calling it “unfair”. Mayawati said that if the government had made the new Parliament, they also “have the right to inaugurate it”.
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Adding that the opposition parties' insistence that the new building be inaugurated by President Droupadi Murmu was “unfair”, Mayawati said, “It is also unfair to link this with the respect of a tribal woman.”
"They should have thought of this while fielding a candidate against her instead of electing her unopposed," she said in a series of tweets.
Welcoming the launch, Mayawati wrote, “Be it the government of Congress party or now the BJP at the centre, the BSP has always supported them on issues related to the country and public interest. Rising above party politics and looking at it in this context, the party also supported the inauguration of the new building of the parliament on May 28.”
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Meanwhile, the BSP chief said she will not be attending the inauguration on May 28 due to some other commitments, even though she has received an invitation. “I have received the invitation for the program dedicated to the country i.e. the inauguration ceremony of the new Parliament House, for which I thank and extend my best wishes. But due to my pre-scheduled engagement regarding the continuous review meetings of the party, I will not be able to attend that function,” she wrote on Twitter in Hindi.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, the BSP chief said she will not be attending the inauguration on May 28 due to some other commitments, even though she has received an invitation. “I have received the invitation for the program dedicated to the country i.e. the inauguration ceremony of the new Parliament House, for which I thank and extend my best wishes. But due to my pre-scheduled engagement regarding the continuous review meetings of the party, I will not be able to attend that function,” she wrote on Twitter in Hindi.
{{/usCountry}}As many as 19 opposition parties - including the Samajwadi Party, Congress, among others - issued a joint statement on Wednesday announcing the boycott of the new Parliament building’s launch on May 28 - which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate. According to the opposition, it is “sidelining” President Droupadi Murmu and is “not only a grave insult but also a direct assault on our democracy.”
In a counterattack, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) also issued a statement asking the opposition parties to rethink their decision to boycott the event. "The people of India will not forget their egregious insult to our democracy and to their elected representatives if they go ahead with their stand,” they said.