Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the country’s new parliament building in the Indian capital New Delhi on Sunday in the absence of nineteen opposition parties. The opposition parties boycotted the opening ceremony because of Modi’s authoritarian approach to parliament. In a paper published last Wednesday open letter the parties call Modi’s passing of President Droupadi Mumru at the inauguration “a gross insult and an outright attack” on democracy.
The president in India has a largely ceremonial function. But by passing Mumru, who according to the constitution is an integral part of parliament, Modi violates “the letter and the spirit” of the constitution, according to the opposition parties. The parties also accuse Modi of pushing through the construction of the new parliament and that he has ‘hollowed out’ the parliament, for example by pushing through (agricultural) legislation without serious debate and by reducing the role of parliamentary committees. “If the soul has been sucked out of the new parliament, it is of no value to us.”
Strengthening Indian identity
The new parliament building stands next to the old parliament building that was in use during the colonial British rule and is part of a complete renovation of ‘India Gate’, the part of Delhi where other government buildings are also located. Modi said at the start of construction that the renovation, which is estimated to cost $ 2.4 billion (€ 2.24 billion), will contribute to the Indian identity of the area. The prime minister was also frequently criticized during the construction of the parliament building for the project, which according to critics mainly serves Modi’s Hindu nationalist political agenda and was not tendered in a transparent manner.
World-renowned British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor named the new parliament building in an op-ed in the British newspaper The Guardian an “expensive vanity project” with which Modi “enhances his legacy as the ruler-maker-builder of a new Hindu India.” Elections will be held in May 2024 and Modi, who has been Prime Minister of India for nine years, hopes to extend his term of office.
Modi gave a speech at the opening of parliament in which he praised Indian democracy while being serenaded by Hindu priests. He carried a golden scepter from the time of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister after India’s independence in 1947. The Hindu nationalist prime minister turned against colonial rule, in which “years of foreign rule stripped us of our pride [hebben] taken away,” Modi said. With the inauguration of the new parliament, “India has left that colonial mentality behind,” said the prime minister.
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Protesters arrested
A few hundred meters away from the parliament, a different image of Indian democracy could be seen on Sunday. When wrestlers and sympathizers, who had been demonstrating against sexual abuse in sports in provisionally furnished tents for four weeks, wanted to walk to parliament, they were arrested. The tents were also removed. Among the detained protesters are Olympic medalists Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, write Indian media.
The wrestlers accuse the former head of the Indian wrestling federation WFI, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, of abuse, which they say dates back more than a decade. Singh recently resigned with the entire board of the union, but is still a member of parliament for Modi’s BJP. “He is in parliament and we are being sent to prison,” said Vinesh Phogat against news agency ANI.