Modi opens India’s new parliament building as opposition boycott

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated a sleek new parliament complex, part of a more than $2 billion project to revamp India’s dilapidated colonial-era government center in New Delhi.

But the inauguration ceremony, which reflected Mr Modi’s usual predilection for Hindu religious and nationalist symbolism, was boycotted by his political opposition. And out in the street the police were brazenly breaking up a demonstration.

The majority of opposition legislators from both chambers, about 250 people, stayed away to protest what they called the latest example of the prime minister’s overpower, which they say is undermining India’s constitutional democracy.

In a rare statement of unity, some 20 opposition parties chided Modi for assuming a role they said was reserved for India’s President Droupadi Murmu, who has the symbolic but important role of custodian of the constitution.

“The president is not only the head of state in India, but also an integral part of the parliament. She summons, prorogates and addresses parliament,” the parties said in the statement. “If the soul of democracy has been sucked out of parliament, we will find no value in a new building.”

Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party opposed such claims, pointing out that previous prime ministers had inaugurated additions and annexes to the old parliament building.

But the opposition parties said Modi’s choice to chair the inauguration was consistent with his party’s more widespread violation of the parliamentary process, which included pushing through, with little debate, controversial bills that have changed the foundations of India’s union.

The inauguration (which opposition leader Rahul Gandhi compared to acoronation”) was kept under tight security as female wrestlers who had been camped out in central Delhi in protest for over a month had vowed to hold a march the same day. The protesters, including Olympic medalists, have accused the chief of the wrestling federation, who is also a legislator in Mr Modi’s party, of sexual harassment and complained that the government was trying to assuage their concerns.

When the wrestlers’ march broke through the security barricades, the police broke it up in a chaotic and violent scene, detaining the wrestlers and dismantling their camp.

Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the accused lawmaker, attended the inauguration and posted pictures of himself posing in the new parliament.

The Old House of Parliament has been the site of great moments in the country’s history, such as Britain’s declaration of independence in 1947 and the adoption of the constitution that made India a democratic republic. But it no longer met the needs of what will soon become the most populous country in the world. There was a lack of space for the 543 legislators of the lower house, a number that is likely to increase in the coming years. Pieces of the ceiling sometimes fell on members, and a few years ago the air conditioning stank so much that a session had to be postponed.

Built for approximately $120 million and designed by Bimal Patel, an Indian architect, the new complex incorporates the latest technology and expands seating to 888 in the main chamber of the lower house.

Ronojoy Sen, political scientist at the National University of Singapore and author of a book on the history of the Indian Parliament, said the symbolism and the timing also mattered.

“The new parliament is being built in time for the 2024 general election,” said Sen. “More importantly, it will continue to be part of Modi’s legacy and as a link to India’s ‘timeless’ and ‘ancient’ democracy – something Modi has often spoken of.”

The campaign for next year’s general election is in full swing, with opposition parties struggling to find a formula to challenge Mr Modi’s grip as he prepares for a third term in office.

The ruling party of India envisions Mr Modi as the leader needed at the time of India’s emergence on the world stage. At an event in New Delhi on Friday to mark nine years of Modi’s rule, party leaders cited the progress he spearheaded – extensive infrastructure investment, improved social security programs, a rise in global status – as reasons for his third term. “decisive leadership.”

While the opposition parties have often fought each other, many have faced a common threat as Mr Modi unleashed the state’s weapons against them. In recent months, they seem to be uniting around a common narrative: Mr Modi is turning the country’s democracy into a one-party government that is failing to deliver the economic growth, especially job creation, that India needs.

“The muzzling of democratic dissent and expression has forced opposition parties to sink their differences and come together to oppose Mr Modi,” said Arati Jerath, a political commentator based in New Delhi. “The opposition hopes to make the protection of democracy and federalism their main focus in next year’s general elections. However, much more work will need to be done to shape a popular and compelling narrative around these issues.”

Analysts and human rights activists say Modi has centralized power around him in a way unseen since the 1970s, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s state of emergency brought Indian democracy the closest ever to outright dictatorship.

What makes Mr Modi’s approach different from Ms Gandhi’s authoritarian turn, they say, is its religious overtones: he is a lifelong member of a right-wing Hindu movement that aims to transform India’s secular system into a Hindu one. nation.

During a Hindu inauguration prayer ceremony (which later included an interfaith ceremony), Mr Modi knelt in front of a sceptrean object that has come to encapsulate the significance of the new parliament – ​​a new beginning from an ambitious builder, one determined to shed not only the remnants of India’s colonial past, but increasingly the secular government that followed it , to replace.

The ruling party said the scepter, given by Hindu priests to India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, as a symbol of the transfer of power from the British in 1947, had been relegated to a corner of a small museum.

In social media posts in which Mr Modi now embraces the sceptre, the party leaders made clear what the return meant: a recovery of Hindu glory that they say has been unjustly undermined by India’s secular constitutional structure.

Mr Modi, surrounded by a dozen Hindu priests, carried the scepter down the aisle of the new parliament and installed it to the right of the speaker’s seat.

“This new Parliament is not just a building; it is a reflection of the aspirations of 1.4 billion Indians,” Mr Modi said. “This is the temple of our democracy.”