The Congress on Sunday slammed the move to relocate statues within the Parliament premises as “arbitrary and unilateral”, with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge saying such decisions made without proper discussion are against the rules and traditions of Parliament. The opposition party has claimed that the idea behind relocating the statues of Mahatma Gandhi, B R Ambedkar and Chhatrapati Shivaji among others is to ensure they are not in a prominent place where the MPs could conduct peaceful and democratic protests.
Rajya Sabha chairperson and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday inaugurated the ‘Prerna Sthal’ in the Parliament complex which now houses these statues of national icons and freedom fighters that were earlier at different places on the premises.
In a statement on the relocation of statues of major leaders in the Parliament House Complex, Congress president Kharge said removing the statues arbitrarily, without any consultation, violates the basic spirit of democracy.
India TV also ran an Opinion poll and asked ‘Is the opposition’s protest against shifting statues to Prerna Sthal in the Parliament complex justified?’ A total of 12,417 people registered their response on the poll. While 81 percent people answered ‘no’, 15 percent chose the ‘yes’ option. Apart from this, 4 percent people answered ‘can’t say’. 