NEW DELHI: Congress and some other opposition parties MPs kept away from the ground-breaking ceremony of the new Parliament building on Thursday. Members of non-NDA parties such as BJD, AIADMK and YSRCP, however, attended the event. Rajya Sabha deputy chairman informed the gathering that former PMs Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda had sent their personal messages. Leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad didn’t attend the function even though his name was read out among guests of honour. Congress floor leader of the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury too didn’t turn up. Among former Lok Sabha Speakers Shivraj Patil was present, while Sumitra Mahajan and Meira Kumar were not.
While there was no formal boycott call of the ceremony by the Congress and some other parties which didn’t attend the event, many leaders did let out their critique of the central vista project and the government’s approach to parliamentary principles, the opposition and the farmers’…
