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Uddhav camp's 'country will remember' warning over Parliament launch photograph
The opposition parties have argued that the President should inaugurate the new Parliament building and not the prime minister.
Dismissing the ruling BJP's criticism of the opposition's decision to boycott the inauguration ceremony of the new Parliament building, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi on Wednesday asserted that the photographs of the upcoming event will remind the country of the “insult of the President.” Chaturvedi, a member of the Upper House, said the pictures from the ceremony, with no opposition leaders in it, “would be called a symbol of dictatorship.”
“Those who are claiming damage to the opposition for not attending the inauguration of the Parliament are forgetting that history will bear witness to it,” the Sena (UBT) leader said in a tweet in Hindi.
“Whenever the picture of the new Parliament will be seen and no leader of the opposition will be found in it, then the country will remember the insult of the President,” she added.
“That image will be called a symbol of dictatorship.”
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Nineteen opposition parties, including the Congress, Left and TMC, have announced their decision to boycott the inauguration of the new Parliament building by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying they find no value in a new building “when the soul of democracy has been sucked out.” AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi also said his party will skip the ceremony if the new Parliament building is launched by Prime Minister Modi.
“I still hope that the Prime Minister of this country will show his large-heartedness, and would show his love for the Constitution. As a true constitutionalist, if he is, then he should allow the Lok Sabha Speaker to inaugurate the new Parliament. And if he (the Speaker) does, then of course, MIM will be there,” he told reporters in Hyderabad.
The ruling BJP has, however, dismissed the opposition's objection calling it a non-issue. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Wednesday urged the opposition parties to reconsider their decision to boycott the inauguration ceremony of the new Parliament building.
"Boycotting and making an issue out of a non-issue is most unfortunate. I appeal to them to reconsider their decision and join the function," Joshi told reporters here on the sidelines of a national workshop on National e-Vidhan Application.
