Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 26: Even as the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) labelled the decision by some opposition parties to boycott the inauguration of the new Parliament building by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday as a “blatant affront to democratic ethos and constitutional values of our great nation,” a controversy has broken out over “Sengol” that the BJP claimed was a “symbol of transfer of power from British to India” and the Congress refuted.
The Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday hit out at the Congress over the party’s claim that there was no documented evidence to establish that Lord Mountbatten, C Rajagopalachari and Jawaharlal Nehru described the ‘Sengol’ as a symbol of the transfer of power by the British to India. Several top BJP leaders and Ministers have also launched fresh attacks on the Congress and other Opposition parties for their decision to boycott inauguration of the new Parliament building.
“Why does the Congress party hate Indian traditions and culture so much? A sacred Sengol was given to Pandit Nehru by a holy Saivite Mutt from Tamil Nadu to symbolize India’s freedom but it was banished to a museum as a ‘walking stick’,” he tweeted, accusing the grand old party of heaping “another shameful insult.” The Thiruvaduthurai Adheenam, a holy Saivite Mutt, itself spoke about the importance of the Sengol at the time of India’s freedom, Shah claimed accusing the Congress of calling the Adheenam’s history “bogus.”
BJP president JP Nadda said parties that were boycotting the inauguration of the new Parliament building were dynasty-run, “whose monarchic methods are at loggerheads with the principles of republicanism and democracy in our Constitution.” In a series of tweets, Nadda said the boycott was an insult to the makers of the Constitution. Naming the Congress and the “Nehru-Gandhi dynasty,” the BJP chief said “elitist mindsets” of dynasts are preventing them from logical thinking and they are “unable to digest a simple fact that the people of India have placed their faith in a man hailing from a humble background.”
The ‘Sengol’ will be installed close to the Chair of the Lok Sabha speaker after the new Parliament building is inaugurated by Modi on Sunday, an event being attended by 25 political parties, but 20 Opposition parties, including the Congress, are boycotting.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has said the Prime Minister and “his drum-beaters” are using the sceptre for their political ends in Tamil Nadu. “This is typical of this brigade that embroiders facts to suit its twisted objectives,” he said. He claimed that a majestic sceptre conceived of by a religious establishment in the Madras province and crafted in Madras city (now Chennai) was indeed presented to Jawaharlal Nehru in August 1947.
“There is no documented evidence whatsoever of Mountbatten, Rajaji and Nehru describing this sceptre as a symbol of transfer of British power to India. All claims to this effect are plain and simple — bogus,” he said. “Wholly and completely manufactured in the minds of a few and dispersed into WhatsApp, and now to the drum-beaters in the media. Two of the finest Rajaji scholars with impeccable credentials have expressed surprise,” the Congress general secretary communications said.
“Prime Minister Modi’s decision to inaugurate the new parliament building by himself, completely sidelining President Murmu, is not only a grave insult but a direct assault on our democracy… This undignified act insults the high office of the President and violates the letter and spirit of the constitution. It undermines the spirit of inclusion which saw the nation celebrate its first woman Adivasi President,” the opposition parties said in a statement.
However, around 270 prominent citizens including retired bureaucrats, ex-military officers and academics on Friday issued an open letter that sharply criticised the opposition parties planning to boycott the inauguration by the prime minister. “Those that are boycotting the inauguration of the Parliament by Prime Minister Narendra Modi just don’t get how they are the ones that are “sucking the soul of democracy.” They are following their own formulaic undemocratic, routine and baseless boycotts,” the letter said, adding that the number of non-partisan events that had been boycotted by the opposition parties were “mind-boggling.”
Among those who signed the statement were former NIA director Yogesh Chander Modi, former DGPs SP Vaid, BL Vohra and Vikram Singh, former ambassadors Bhaswati Mukherjee, Niranjan Desai, Virender Gupta and JS Sapra and retired IAS officers Gopal Krishna, Deepak Singhal and CS Khairwal. It listed four events that were boycotted by the Congress and the opposition in the past and described the inauguration of the new Parliament building a proud moment for the entire country.