Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the new hi-tech Parliament House on May 28 in the presence of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. However, Congress, Trinamool Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal and some other opposition parties have demanded that the President should inaugurate the new building. In a series of tweets, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said, “The President of India, Smt. Draupadi Murmu is not being invited for the inauguration of the new Parliament House. The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India, and the President is its supreme constitutional authority. She alone represents the government, the opposition and every citizen equally. She is the first citizen of India. … The office of the President of India has been reduced to symbolism under the BJP-RSS government.” In response, BJP supporters released a video showing the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi laying the foundation stone of the Parliament Library Building. Congress leaders have also raised the question as to why the new building is being inaugurated on Veer Savarkar Jayanti, which falls on May 28. I think it doesn’t matter who inaugurates the new parliament building. The difference should be whether the proceedings of the new Parliament will run smoothly or not. The difference should be whether the new Parliament House will be allowed to become a forum for debate on issues of public importance. The distinction that should be made is whether a new Parliament building is needed or not. I remember, when Meira Kumar was the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh supported that a new Parliament building should be built. Those who have visited the present Parliament House know what problems are being faced here. There is acute shortage of space, there is no place for staff to sit, political parties are engaged in tug of war to get space for their offices, building has old sound system, water drips during monsoon, air-conditioner work sometimes Deep cracks are visible in the walls and ceiling. Secondly, the space for MPs is now less. The current building has seating for only 543 Lok Sabha MPs. When the Lok Sabha seats are delimited in 2026, this number may cross 800. The existing building will not be able to provide seating space for so many MPs. That’s why the new Parliament House was considered necessary. It should have happened long ago. It is to the credit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the building was completed within a record time of 30 months. It has to be understood that Modi will not sit alone in the new building. It will provide space to ministers, leaders of parliamentary parties and all staff working for the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats. The Parliament of the world’s largest and vibrant democracy should also be spectacular. That is why I feel that all political parties should welcome the inauguration of the new Parliament House.
Opposition unity: Stone pelters from Congress
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar met Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on Monday as part of his efforts to forge opposition unity. On Sunday, he met Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. The AAP supremo, in turn, is visiting Kolkata and Mumbai to seek support from Mamata Banerjee, Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar in his fight against the Center against the recent Delhi-related ordinance. Before the Lok Sabha elections to be held next year, Nitish Kumar told the Congress leaders the importance of opposition unity. He is pushing for the early formation of an anti-Modi front, and wants to hold its first meeting in Patna. There is no haste visible in the Congress leaders. They are insisting that the parties should first decide on the state-wise seat allocation formula. Nitish Kumar has been working hard for the last three months to build a united opposition front. He has already met Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray. The main thing is that if the Congress does not join the front then all the efforts will go in vain. It is not difficult to understand the problems of the Congress. The grand old party wants to project Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister, and to achieve that objective, the party has to contest over 300 Lok Sabha seats. But Mamata Banerjee has already said, if Congress wants to contest Lok Sabha elections jointly with other parties, it should not expect more than 210 seats. Mamta Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav and Nitish Kumar are ready to give more seats to Congress only in those states where Congress is in direct competition with BJP. These ten states are: Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Goa. There are a total of 144 seats in these ten states. From these ten states till date Congress has only seven and BJP has 132 seats. Naturally, the Congress will seek more seats from states where regional parties dominate. The question is, why should Mamata Banerjee give more seats to the Congress in West Bengal? Why should Akhilesh Yadav leave more seats for Congress in UP? How many seats will Lalu Prasad Yadav give to Congress in Bihar? How many seats will Hemant Soren give to Congress in Jharkhand? This is the main reason why the Congress is insisting on finalizing the seat-sharing formula first. But, Nitish Kumar is saying, first we all get ready to fight together, the seat distribution will be decided later. This is where the ball has stopped rolling. The Congress is currently on cloud nine after its landslide victory in Karnataka, where it defeated the BJP.
MAULANA MADANI: BAN BAJRANG DAL
Jamiat-Ulama-e-Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani has courted controversy by saying that since Muslim voters in Karnataka have voted en masse for the Congress, the party should now ban the Bajrang Dal, as opposed to He had promised in his election manifesto. Maulana said in a meeting in Mumbai, had the Congress taken this step 70 years ago, the party would not have been in opposition today. He described the banned organization PFI as a “Muslim response” to the rise of the Bajrang Dal. BJP leader Giriraj Singh praised the left hand and said, “Maulana is right. The mistake happened 70 years ago. If our forefathers had not made mistakes at the time of partition, people like Madani would not have been living in Pakistan. Those who raised the slogan of Ghazwa-e-Hind are the result of the mistakes made 70 years ago, which today’s generation is facing. Maulana’s nephew Maulana Hasan Madani even went so far as to say that those who are demanding a Hindu Rashtra are ‘traitors’. On the other hand, Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, head of Bageshwar Dham, who lives in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, again called for Hindu nation and said that if we cannot achieve it peacefully, then we are ready for revolution. In the name of Lord Rama”. Dhirendra Krishna Shastri is a young, Hindu religious preacher. Lakhs of devotees thronged to see him speak. Naturally, the youth enthusiastically raise the slogan of ‘Hindu Rashtra’. Most of his devotees clap when he talks about Hindu Rashtra. His point may be objected to but to say that “a jackal’s mother cannot give birth to a lion” and “lions are not afraid of a pack of wolves”, is grossly unfair. As far as Maulana Arshad Madani is concerned, he is 82 years old and has great respect among Muslims. People listen to what he says and most of the people also agree with him. So Maulana should be careful what he is saying. He is saying, if Congress had banned Bajrang Dal 70 years ago, it would not have been in opposition today. Bajrang Dal was not formed 70 years ago. At that time there was RSS. Congress has seen the result of banning RSS. Bajrang Dal was banned after the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and Congress saw the result. So if Madani is expecting Congress to ban Bajrang Dal, it cannot happen. Madani should be surprised to know that the Congress too is now following the path of Hindutva. On Monday, a ‘puja’ was performed inside the Karnataka Assembly complex, and Ganges water and cow urine were sprinkled as a mark of “purification”.
Aaj Ki Baat: Monday to Friday, 9:00 pm
India’s number one and most followed super prime time news show ‘Aaj Ki Baat – Rajat Sharma Ke Saath’ was launched just before the 2014 general elections. Since its inception, the show has been redefining India’s super-prime time and is numerically way ahead of its contemporaries.