Majlis to attend Parliament inaugural if Lok Sabha Speaker inaugurates it

HYDERABAD: Finding fault with the boycott statement issued by 19 opposition parties demanding the inauguration of the new Parliament building by President Draupadi Murmu, the All India Majlis-e- Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) party chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi said that only Lok Sabha Speaker has the right to inaugurate the building.

Speaking to the media at the AIMIM party headquarters at Darussalam on Wednesday, the Hyderabad MP said that the 19 opposition parties had not consulted him before taking a decision as they treated AIMIM as “an untouchable.” He pointed out that the parties had wrongly quoted article 79 of the Constitution of India demanding that President should inaugurate the Parliament building.

“I am talking about Article 53 (1) which clearly separated powers among legislature, executive, and judiciary. While the executive powers were vested with the Prime Minister and the President, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from the Legislature was the custodian of parliament and not the President,” Asaduddin said.

He made it clear that he would attend the inauguration if the Prime Minister allowed the Lok Sabha speaker to do the inauguration, otherwise, AIMIM would boycott the event. The PM should not enter into the domain of the legislature,” he reiterated, asking the Prime Minister to have a large heart and resist inaugurating the Parliament.

The AIMIM chief further criticised the intention of the Prime Minister to inaugurate the new building and said: “He wants to inaugurate everything. He laid the foundation for the new building, he unveiled the national emblem on the dome, while the Speaker was treated like a bystander.”

The country needs a new Parliament building

However, Asaduddin Owaisi made it clear that AIMIM had been demanding a new parliament building as the old one did not even have a fire department certification. “It used to be so choc-o-block during debates that we used get suffocated. One time a part of the ceiling of the room on the first floor where Mulayam Singh Yadav was dining, fell down,” he said.

Recalling the 2019 all-party meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the one nation one election issue, Asad said that his party demanded a new Parliament building at that time. Earlier the then Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar also made a similar demand, he said.