Manner of inaugurating new Parl building unbecoming of nation: Kerala CM

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the inauguration of the new Parliament building was carried out like a religious function which was unbecoming of our nation

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday said the inauguration of the new Parliament building was carried out like a religious function which was unbecoming of our nation.

Vijayan said a government function of this nature ought not to have been conducted in the manner of a religious event.

Furthermore, Indian President Droupadi Murmu should have been made a part of it, the CM said.

"What happened today in Parliament, the manner it was conducted in, like a religious function, not making the President a part of it, all of it was unbecoming of our nation," he said, speaking at an event held in memory of former MP and late LJD leader M P Veerendra Kumar.

Earlier in the day, both the ruling-CPI(M) in Kerala and the Opposition Congress in the state criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP on the inauguration of the new Parliament building and called it a "black day" for Indian democracy and an attempt at creating a parallel history.

The Congress attacked the Centre for not inviting President Murmu to the function and said it showed the "upper caste communal fascist stand of the RSS".

It's a "black day" for Indian democracy, AICC general secretary (in-charge of organisation) K C Venugopal said.

State Minister and CPI(M) leader M B Rajesh in a Facebook post said the BJP had earlier tried to create a place in India's history by keeping a portrait in Parliament of V D Savarkar, an accused in the Mahatma Gandhi assassination case, but failed; so now they are trying to create a parallel history by inaugurating a new Parliament building.