NEW DELHI: BJP on Wednesday termed unfortunate the opposition’s stand that the new Parliament building should have been inaugurated by the President and not the PM, with Assam chief minister

Himanta Biswa Sarma

reminding that no non-BJP government let a governor inaugurate a legislative assembly building or lay the foundation stone of one.
Sarma cited five instances where the honours were done by the prime minister, the chief minister and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
“In the last nine years, five non-BJP/opposition state governments either laid foundation stones or inaugurated a new legislative assembly building,” Sarma tweeted. “All were done by either the CM or the party president. In not a single instance was the governor or the President invited.” The instances mentioned by the Assam CM include laying the foundation stone of assembly buildings in Jharkhand and Assam in 2014, in Andhra Pradesh in 2018, in Chhattisgarh in 2020, and in Telangana in 2023.
Reacting to the tweet, BJP chief spokesperson

Anil

Baluni said the instances brought out the political dishonesty of the opposition. “This is sheer hypocrisy,” he said.

Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi called the opposition protest unnecessary. “I would like to tell them that this is a historical event. This is not the time for politics… Boycotting and making issues out of a non-issue is most unfortunate. I appeal to them to reconsider their decision and join this historical function,” he said.
BJP spokesperson

Gaurav Bhatia

said the protests were part of the “hate Modi” campaign where the opposition parties had earlier dubbed the new Parliament building as “Modi Mahal”. “Now, they are boycotting the event. Their only intention is to desecrate the sanctity of Parliament,” he added.
Bhatia said the opposition’s boycott was yet another reflection of their hatred towards PM Narendra Modi and it had become so intense that these parties had decided to boycott an event on which the entire country was feeling proud.