“Don’t Want Any Politics”: Akali Dal Chief To Attend New Parliament Opening

Chandigarh:

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal will attend the inauguration of the new Parliament building in Delhi on May 28, party leader Daljit Singh Cheema said on Wednesday, amid 19 Opposition parties announcing a boycott of the event.

The country is getting a new Parliament building and it is a moment of pride, and “we do not want any politics to be played at this time”, Mr Cheema said in an apparent reference to the boycott by parties such as the AAP, the Congress and the TMC.

The Opposition parties have said the prime minister’s decision to inaugurate the building by himself, “completely sidelining President Droupadi Murmu, is not only a grave insult but a direct assault on our democracy which demands a commensurate response”.

The SAD has decided that party president Sukhbir Singh Badal will attend the inauguration of the new Parliament building, Cheema said in a video statement and added that it is a big event for the country and all should attend it. Taking a swipe at the AAP, Cheema said, “I want to ask them that the AAP government is in Punjab. (Arvind) Kejriwal should answer when the president came to Chandigarh, then why the chief minister (Bhagwant Mann) was not present (at the event).

“It was the governor who had to point out that he (the chief minister) should have come,” the Akali leader. He was referring to President Droupadi Murmu’s maiden visit to Chandigarh on October 8 last year.

Punjab Governor Banwari Lal Purohit had taken an exception to Chief Minister Mann skipping the civic reception held in the honour of the President.

President Murmu was here to witness the air display of the Indian Air Force at Sukhna lake.

Apparently pointing towards the row between the Punjab governor and the AAP government a few months back, Cheema said, “It is also known to everybody how much respect the chief minister gives to the President’s nominee — the governor.” Taking on the Congress, he said the country also is aware about the “respect” given by the Congress to the Constitution during the Emergency.

“The way former president (Giani Zail Singh) was respected during the tenure of Rajiv Gandhi, everybody knows about it,” the SAD leader said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)