Mumbai, May 25 (Agency) Taking a dig at opposition parties boycotting inauguration of the new building of Parliament, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said Congress and other parties have little faith in democracy. Fadnavis said Parliament is not just a building, but a temple of faith of 140 crore citizens. Fadnavis said the new Parliament is a symbol of the power of the new India and has been completed in just three to four years. Going back in time, Fadnavis asked why the issue of boycott did not come up when Jawahar Lal Nehru inaugurated the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. He said when Indira Gandhi inaugurated the Parliament Annex Building or the Maharashtra Legislative Building, or when Rajiv Gandhi opened the Parliament Library, or Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar inaugurated the Central Hall of the Bihar Legislative Assembly, then also nobody talked about boycott.
He said when then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the new Legislative Assembly in Manipur, even a simple invitation was not extended to the Governor. Similarly when erstwhile Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi performed Bhoomipujan of the Assam Legislative Assembly, the Governor was not even invited. Continuing in the same vein, he said in 2018, the Bhoomipujan of the Andhra Legislative Assembly was conducted by the Chief Minister, but the Governor was not invited. Fadnavis wondered why the opposition did not remember the boycott on all these occasions. If what the opposition did was like democrats, then why is so much fuss being made when Prime Minister Narendra Modi iss going to inaugurate the country’s new parliament. These parties are united by the greed of power and chair, remarked Fadnavis, sayingthe opposition does not have a leader and policy, and was therefore raising unnecessary issues.