PM treating inauguration of new Parliament building as coronation: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi, May 28 (PTI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said Parliament is the voice of the people but the prime minister is treating the inauguration of the new building like a “coronation”.

The attack came soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new parliament building.

“Parliament is the voice of the people! The prime minister is treating the inauguration of the Parliament House as coronation,” Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.

Congress general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal tweeted, “At the foundation stone laying ceremony of the new parliament building, then Hon’ble President Ramnath Kovind was kept away from the ceremony. At its inauguration, President Droupadi Murmu has been sidelined.”

“It is the upper caste, anti-backward mindset of the RSS because of which they are denied the respect that their high constitutional office deserves. Their deliberate exclusion shows PM Modi will use them as tokens for his electoral politics but will not allow them to be part of such significant and historic occasions,” Venugopal said.

Reacting to Gandhi’s coronation remark, BJP MP from Aurangabad, Sushil Kumar Singh, after attending the inauguration of the new Parliament building, alleged that “he (Gandhi) was jealous of Modi”.

“Rahul Gandhi is unable to accept that the people of India have given a mandate to Modi ji for two terms so far. So he is making such a statement,” he said.

On the sengol issue, Singh, a four-time MP said, “The Congress party does not even remember its past. The party doesn’t want to look into the reports published in daily newspapers of that period. So, I will say, Congress should recollect its past, and look into those news articles.”