Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar on Monday praised the inauguration of the new parliament building and suggested the Members of Parliament (MPs) to come together and work for the common people of the country and resolve their issues.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the new Parliament building to the country on Sunday after a ceremony that saw a multi-faith prayer.
The new Parliament building is designed to enable 888 members to sit in the Lok Sabha. In the present building of the Parliament, there is a provision for the sitting of 543 Members in the Lok Sabha and 250 in the Rajya Sabha.
"Without seeing the inauguration of the New Parliament building from a political angle, I want to state that we all know Britishers had made their Parliament (old building), which was there for 75 years. Many states have made their assembly houses after independence. Maharashtra also made a new assembly building after 1980 and in fact, currently, there is a discussion among us that there should be a new assembly building in Maharashtra," Pawar said while talking to the reporters in Pune.
Comparing the country's population when the old Parliament building was built to the current population of the nation, Pawar said that with the increasing population, people's representation would also increase and he personally feel that this new building was needed.
"Taking the population of the nation into consideration when the old building of parliament was built, we were 35 crore people in India and now we are at 135 crores. Accordingly, people's representation would also increase so looking at this factor despite having a connection with the old building, I personally feel this new building was needed," he said.
Ajit Pawar also praised the speed of construction of the building and said," The building was built in record time. The construction work was going on even in the Covid time and finally, we have got a good Parliament building. Now in this new building, everyone shall work as per the constitution and resolve the issues of common people, everyone shall take part in it."
Pawar's remark is in stark contrast to the stand taken by NCP which was among the 20 opposition parties that skipped the inauguration of new parliament building on Sunday.
Ajit's uncle and NCP chief Sharad Pawar had expressed concerns over the rituals which took place during the inauguration.
"There is a huge difference between the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru talking about the concept of modern India and a series of rituals performed at the new Parliament building today in New Delhi. I fear that we are taking our country backward by decades," Sharad Pawar had said.
"One cannot compromise on science. Nehru was persistent about his wish to form a society with a scientific temperament. But what is happening today at the inaugural ceremony of the new Parliament building is exactly the opposite of what Nehru had envisaged," he added.
