‘Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi  inaugurated many Parliament and Assembly structures’

New Delhi: In a clear hardening of the Government’s stand over the opposition’s decision to skip the inauguration of the new Parliament building, Home Minister Amit Shah said the boycott would make no difference as Narendra Modi had twice been elected as PM with a popular mandate and not because of the charity of Congress and its allies.

“I want to make it clear to Congress leaders that your boycott is immaterial as PM Modi enjoys the blessings of the people of the whole country. And the entire country wants him to become the PM for a third time with more than 300 seats,” Shah said at a rally organised in Guwahati to mark the second anniversary of the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Government

“We should not politicise the inauguration of Parliament building. Let people react however they want to. In August 1975, then PM Indira Gandhi inaugurated the Parliament annexe and in 1987 PM Rajiv Gandhi inaugurated the Parliament library. If your (Congress) head of Government can inaugurate them, why can’t our head of Government do the same,” he said.

“The petty politics by the opposition parties is an insult to the people’s mandate, who made Narendra Modi the PM twice with full majority,” Shah stated.

“Data that we have collected show (Congress President) Sonia Gandhi did the Bhoomi Pujan for the Chhattisgarh Assembly building and inaugurated the Houses in Manipur and Tamil Nadu. The Governors of these States were not invited. Former Chief Ministers Tarun Gogoi and Chandrababu Naidu did a similar thing in Assam and Andhra Pradesh respectively

Accusing Congress of ‘dirty politics’ and ‘hypocrisy’ to discredit Modi and the BJP-led Government, Shah said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took part in the inauguration of some of these Assembly buildings without the Governors being invited. In the case of Chhattisgarh, the Governor was a tribal, Shah pointed out.