Govt has invited everyone, people will react as per their sentiments: Amit Shah on Opposition boycott of new Parliament building inauguration

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 23

Moments after the opposition announced boycott of the May 28 event to inaugurate the new Parliament building, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the government had invited all parties to the May 28 inauguration and leaders would react as per their feelings.

“The government has sent invitations to all. People will respond to the government invitation depending on their sentiments and feelings,” Shah said.

Shah was speaking at an event where he announced that a distinguished delegation from Tamil Nadu would on May 28 present to the PM the “Sengol” (sceptre) which marked the transfer of power from the British kingdom to India in 1947.

The sceptre, which was symbolic of power transfers from one king to another in the centuries-old Chola dynasty, was chosen by the then Indian leadership to mark the transfer of power to India as per national civilisational values.

Then PM Jawaharlal Nehru had received the sceptre from the Tamil Nadu seers in 1947 before delivering his famous ‘tryst with destiny’ speech. Prior to Nehru the same sceptre was received by then British viceroy Lord Mountbatten.

The sceptre, hitherto preserved in a museum in Tamil Nadu, will be received by PM Modi on May 28 when he inaugurates the new Parliament building, and will be placed close to the seat of the Lok Sabha speaker.