Country being taken backwards: Pawar on rituals at new parliament building

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Sunday, 28 May, said that various rituals performed at the inauguration of the new parliament building in New Delhi by Prime Minister Narendra Modi show that the country was being taken backwards by decades.

He said the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had envisaged a society having a scientific temperament, but what happened at the new parliament inauguration ceremony was the opposite of that.

PM Modi inaugurated the new building this morning at a grand ceremony which included a havan, a multi-faith prayer ceremony, and the installation of a golden sengol once gifted to Nehru in a special holder in the Lok Sabha chamber.

Speaking to reporters in Pune, Pawar said, "There is a huge difference between the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru talking about the concept of modern India and the series of rituals performed at the new parliament building today in New Delhi. I fear that we are taking our country backward by decades."

"One cannot compromise on science. Nehru was persistent about his wish to form a society with [a] scientific temperament. But what is happening today at the inaugural ceremony of the new parliament building is exactly the opposite of what Nehru had envisaged," he said.

The NCP was among the 20 Opposition parties that boycotted the inauguration of the new parliament building over the prime minister and not the president of India inaugurating the complex.

The Constitution of India defines the Parliament as consisting of two houses—a house of the people and a council of the states—led by the president.