Congress skips new parliament building stone-laying ceremony

The Congress on Thursday boycotted the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the new parliament building, slamming the Central government for conducting an event at a time when hundreds of thousand farmers protest outside the national capital.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation of the new building at the Parliament House Complex which is estimated to cost around Rs 921 crore.

Political leaders from all outfits, industrialists and foreign envoys were in attendance at the groundbreaking ceremony. However, no one from congress attended the event even as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury were both invited to the function.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh said that the ceremony envisions democracy and that the building is not built on the values and aspirations that represent 130 crore Indians.

“Dear PM, Parliament is not mortar and stones. It envisions democracy. It imbibes Constitution. It is economic-political-social equality. It is compassion and camaraderie. It is the aspirations of 130 crore Indians. What would a building built upon trampling of these values represent?” he tweeted.

“Mr Modi, history will also record that when the ‘Annadata’ (food grower) was fighting for his rights for 16 days on the streets, you were building a palace for yourself in the name of Central Vista. In democracy, power is not a means to fulfil your whims, but is a medium for public service and public welfare,” he said in another tweet in Hindi.

Meanwhile, Union Parliamentray Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi attacking Congress on Friday said that party's boycott shows they want to continue British Lgeacy in India.

"The Congress wants to continue with the British Legacy. Like earlier, they used to table the annual Budget at 5 pm because the British used to do it," he said.