The New Parliament House of India – a Temple of Democracy

 

The New Parliament House of India – a Temple of Democracy

India is on the move with the changing times and rightly so. The old historical structures like the Parliament House, Central Secretariat (comprising of North and South Blocks- the seat of power) and several buildings including the Vice President’s Residence, PM’s Office, PM;s Residence among others are being rebuilt or renovated

New Parliament Building

as the Central Vista to meet the current and future requirements of the country that is Bharat. What is Central Vista site? - The Central Vista project aims to strengthen governance infrastructure by building new facilities for India's Parliament, an efficient and sustainable Central Secretariat to house all the ministries of the Government of India, as explained by the authorities. PM Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the building on December 10, 2020, and its construction began in January 2021 which is complete now. It has been stated “The new building symbolizes the spirit of self-reliant India (Atmanirbhar Bharat)”. The new Parliament, constructed on the lines of the Central Vista buildings, is a triangular structure. It houses the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha, the Central Lounge and offices of constitutional authorities. The new Lok Sabha Chamber is designed in the likeness of India's National Bird, the Peacock. The new complex will have 888 seats in the Lok Sabha chamber and 384 seats in the Rajya Sabha chamber. Unlike the present parliament building, it will not have a central hall. The new building, designed by Bimal Patel of HCP Designs, built with an expenditure of Rs.1200 crorers will have ‘state of the art facilities’ in commensuration with the current and forthcoming needs of the system and the country. The old building, designed by Edward Lutyens, was built from 1921-26 at the cost of Rs. 83 lakh in the

Old Parliament House

British colonial times. The old building would be converted into ‘Museum of Democracy’, a thoughtful decision. Some of the details and salient features of the ‘Temple of Democracy’ are coming out slowly which would be inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi on May 28, 2023. It would have three main gates – Gyan Dwar, Shakti Dwar and Karma Dwar. In the compound, as stated in the media, there would granite statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Chanakya, Sardar Vallabbhai Patel and Babasaheb Ambedkar. Though these symbolic gestures, of course, have great emotional and inspirational values and we should take it seriously but there is another dimension of it too. Let me quote Babasaheb Ambedkar, to make my point, on the need of sending men of integrity to the august house, the parliament which I think is all the more relevant in the prevailing situation, “The educational qualifications can hardly be the sole qualification for membership of

Babasaheb Ambedkar

parliament. If I may use the words of Buddha, he said that man requires two things; one is ‘Gyan’ and the other is ‘Sheel’. Gyan without Sheel is very dangerous. It must be accompanied by Sheel by which we mean; character, moral courage, ability to be independent of any kind of temptations, truthful to ones ideals. I am very keen to see that no member enters this august assembly who does not possess ‘Sheel’ in an adequate degree.”

There cannot two opinions that with changing profile of India not only demographically but also its growing stature as a democratic country not only within the country but also in the world at large, we need to upgrade our institutional facilities. The new parliament building is a step in that direction, prime facie. But, unfortunately, it has generated an avoidable controversy between the government and the opposition parties; basically on the inauguration of the new building by PM Narendra Modi scheduled for May 28, 2023 and not by Mahamahim Rashtrapati Droupadi Murmu, the first citizen and Head of State of Bharat. Most of the opposition is all set to boycott the function amidst acrimonious debate which is not only frivolous and uncalled for but also un-becoming of the largest democracy of the world. GOI also should have also shown due consideration in involving the Opposition, an essential part in a parliamentary democracy, while deciding the redoing or building new structures of national importance. It is not in order to resort to a ‘majoritarian’ approach in these matters. India is a parliamentary democracy and as such leader of the majority party that is the PM is the effective head of the Government in spite of the fact that the country is run and governed in the name of the President of India that is Mahamahim Rashtrapati in terms of the relevant provisions of the constitution particularly Articles 52, 79, 124 among others. PM is supposed to enjoy the trust and mandate of ‘We the people of India’ through the parliament. If the GOI has decided to offer the honours to inaugurate the new building of parliament – Temple of Democracy to the PM of India, we shall accept it rather than creating a controversy. Yes, the opposition has the right to say their mind and register their point of view in a due procedural manner. But it has not happened, unfortunately. More and more controversial issues have come-up like the installation of ‘Sengol’ - It is a sceptre/staff/wand with a royal or imperial insignia signifying sovereign authority, justice, power and good governance, etc. Sengol is the Tamil word for scepter and the

Sengol

date, May 28, itself as it happened to be the birth anniversary of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, an RSS ideologue. The opposition parties particularly the Congress Party, obviously, do not like and endorse the ‘Hindutava Agenda’ of the ruling dispensation of BJP. There is no simple and straight answer to all these controversial issues but to invoke ‘constitutional morality’ in governing the country of 140 crorer with multi-racial, multi-linguistic and multicultural society as visualized by the chief architect of the constitution, Babasaheb Ambedkar who said, ‘Constitutional morality would mean effective coordination between conflicting interests of different people and the administrative cooperation to resolve them amicably without any confrontation amongst the various groups working for the realization of their ends at any cost’.

Let us enjoy the fruits of independence and resultant prosperity in an environment of Sab Ka Vikas – Sab a Bisvash. India is on rails. We should ward off the dangers of ‘Grammar of Anarchy’ as warned by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in his last speech in the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949 before finally giving the Constitution to ourselves.

आ, ग़ैरियत के परदे एक बार फिर उठा दें
बिछड़ों को फिर मिला दें, नक़्श ए दोई मिटा दें
सूनी पड़ी हुई है, मुद्दत से दिल की बस्ती
आ, एक नया शिवाला इस देस में बना दें