NEW DELHI: Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri today hit out the Congress for criticizing the inauguration of the new Parliament building by Prime Minister Modi on May 28.
Puri tweeted: "Congress President & other worthies are now shifting the goalpost by generously misquoting an article a day from the Constitution! From criticising the New Parliament Building & questioning its very necessity despite many of them advocating for it before but not executing it. If people can recall October 24, 1975, the day Smt. Indira Gandhi opened the Parliament Annexe, they should feel better. Alternatively, on August 15, 1987, Shri Rajiv Gandhi laid the cornerstone for the Parliament Library.Why then can't they just smile and support India on her significant achievement and her march to greatness instead of looking for stories to excuse their hypocrisy?
He also included a screenshot of remarks made by Manish Tewari and Shashi Tharoor, two heavyweights of the Congress. Puri's comments come as the Congress and BJP are engaged in a verbal battle over the opening of the new Parliament House.
On Monday, AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge posted on Twitter that the administration had insured that the Dalit and Tribal communities will pick the President of India just for electoral purposes, and that as a result, the Office of the President has been reduced to a tokenism.
"It appears that the Modi government has insured that the Dalit and tribal people would elect the president of India solely for electoral purposes. The President of India Droupadi Murmu is not being invited to the inauguration of the new Parliament Building, while Former President (Ram Nath) Kovind was not invited to the New Parliament foundation-laying ceremony, he added. In a dig at the government, Kharge said,
"The President of India is its highest Constitutional authority, and the Parliament of India is its supreme legislative body. She stands in for the entire populace, the government, and the opposition. She is India's First Citizen. "She will officially open the new Parliament building, demonstrating the government's dedication to democratic principles and constitutional validity. The Modi administration has consistently disregarded decorum. When criticising the BJP-RSS government, he said, "The Office of the President of India is reduced to tokenism."On May 28, Modi will officially open the new Parliament building, a four-story structure with a triangle shape and a built-up size of 64,500 square metres.
Construction on the structure commenced on January 15, 2021, and was scheduled to be finished in August 2022. The new, four-story edifice, which was constructed on a 64,500 square metre plot of land, will house 1,224 members of parliament. The structure was built by Tata Projects with an estimated cost of Rs 970 crore.
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