BRS joins Opposition to boycott new Parliament inauguration event, supports Delhi CM in Ordinance issue

NEW DELHI: Telengana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s Bharatiya Rashtriya Samithi (BRS) joined the group of 19 opposition parties on Wednesday to declare that it would boycott the inauguration of the new Parliament building, scheduled for May 28. The party will also side with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal against the Ordinance brought by the Centre to take administrative control of the Union territory.
While most parties have declared their stand on attending the inauguration function, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD), a former NDA ally, is yet to announce its stand. The party will take a call on May 27, a day before the function, a BJD source told TOI on Wednesday, even as it is expected that it will stand by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he throws open the new Parliament building.
On the opening of the new Parliament building, BRS MP K Suresh Reddy told the TOI on Wednesday that the President of India is the competent authority to inaugurate the Parliament. “Also, there should have been an all-party meeting called by the speaker for such a big occasion, all parties could have shared their views … after all Parliament is for all parties and not just for the government ... it would have been an inclusive stand and sent out the right message. In fact, speakers of legislatures from the states should have been included as the Lok Sabha speaker is a guiding light for them. Moreover, given that the rest of the Commonwealth countries look up to India for its democratic values and institutions, it would have been appropriate to invite them for the inauguration, especially in a year India is hosting the G20 summit. All that would have turned it into a great occasion.”
On the Ordinance brought by the Centre against the Delhi government, overruling the Supreme Court’s ruling, Reddy said, BRS will go with Kejriwal. “Our chief minister has been a strong votary of maintaining federal norms. Belittling the public voice as it (AAP) is an elected government by the people, upsets the federal fabric on which our country’s unity in diversity flourishes,” Reddy told TOI, when asked whether BRS will support Kejriwal in Rajya Sabha on the issue.
Interestingly, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is the only opposition party that has openly pointed out that the inauguration of the new Parliament building was happening on V D Savarkar’s birth anniversary. An editorial in the party’s mouth piece “Jago Bangla” on Wednesday is on the topic of the parliament house being opened on Savarkar’s birthday. “Is it a ploy by the ruling BJP to play divisive politics before the Lok Sabha polls in 2024 bringing out another contentious reason for boycotting the inaugural function, apart from the gross contempt of Article 79 of the Constitution, by not having the President inaugurate the new House?”