New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said that the President should inaugurate the new Parliament building and not the prime minister. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the newly-constructed Parliament building on May 28. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla met Modi on Thursday last and extended an invitation to inaugurate the new building, the Lok Sabha Secretariat had said.
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नए संसद भवन का उद्घाटन राष्ट्रपति जी को ही करना चाहिए, प्रधानमंत्री को नहीं!
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 21, 2023 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">नए संसद भवन का उद्घाटन राष्ट्रपति जी को ही करना चाहिए, प्रधानमंत्री को नहीं!
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 21, 2023नए संसद भवन का उद्घाटन राष्ट्रपति जी को ही करना चाहिए, प्रधानमंत्री को नहीं!
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 21, 2023
Taking to Twitter, Gandhi said, "The President should inaugurate the new Parliament House and not the Prime Minister". The inauguration of the new Parliament building on May 28 coincides with the birth anniversary of Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar and several opposition parties have targeted the government over it. The Congress has called it a "complete insult" to the country's founding fathers.
Earlier on Friday Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla tweeted, "Fulfilling the hopes and expectations of more than 140 crore countrymen, the newly constructed building of the Parliament will also become a powerful medium to achieve our resolution of building a developed India by the year 2047."
The Lok Sabha Speaker hailed the new Parliament building which will be launched by PM Modi on May 28 this year and said that it will "enrich India's glorious democratic traditions". "The newly constructed building of Parliament will further enrich India's glorious democratic traditions and constitutional values. In this building, the honourable members will be able to better perform their duties towards the country and the citizens. Honourable Prime Minister @narendramodi will dedicate this building to the nation on 28th May," Birla tweeted.
The new Parliament building can comfortably seat 888 members in the Lok Sabha chamber and 300 in the Rajya Sabha chamber, according to the Lok Sabha Secretariat. In case of a joint sitting of both the Houses, a total of 1,280 members can be accommodated in the Lok Sabha chamber. The prime minister had laid the foundation stone of the new Parliament building on December 10, 2020. The present Parliament building was completed in 1927. (With Agency inputs)