Trinamool Congress MPs Jawahar Sarkar and Mahua Maitra have accused the Modi government at the Center of insulting the national symbol by creating an “offensive” and “disproportionate” likeness of Ashoka Singh in the capital over the construction of a new parliament in Delhi. .
Rajya Sabha MP Jawahar Sarkar said on Twitter, “An insult to our national symbol, the royal Ashokan Singh. The original is on the left, beautiful, regularly confident. Modi’s version on the right, imposed on building a new parliament – is unnecessarily aggressive and inconsistent. Shame! Change it immediately!”
Lok Sabha MP Mahua Maitra tweeted a picture of Ashoka’s lion along with his capital – adding to the comment as well as appraising an earlier sculpture installed in bronze and burnt cast on the roof of the new Parliament building.
Earlier, TMC MP Jawahar Sirkar said that the MPs, who will occupy the building, were not consulted in any way and alleged that “Modi will now zap us with a mediocre structure designed at exorbitant cost through his crony architects”.
“No opposition party member or leader was invited to unveil the logo. Once there only the Prime Minister was considered. Second, if we meet a lion, there is a mismatch. It’s a disaster. The four lions who must seem benevolent are behaving aggressively,” he said.
The protests subsided after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a replica of the national emblem on top of the new Parliament building on Monday. The Congress, CPI(M) and AIMIM criticized Prime Minister Modi’s inauguration, calling it a “violation” of the Constitution, which envisages separation of powers between the executive and the legislature.
The BJP has fired back, calling the opposition’s criticism “politically motivated”.
“It is unfortunate that the events of the opposition have led to some more baseless allegations, which hurt their political objectives,” said BJP spokesperson and nationwide media in-charge Anil Baluni.
The 6.5-metre-high brand is made of bronze and weighs 9,500 kg, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said. It is cast over the central lobby of the building and a supporting structure of steel weighing around 6,500 kg is constructed to guide it.
The concept of casting the nation-wide symbol on the roof of the new Parliament building went through eight special stages of guidance, from clay modeling and laptop photography to bronze casting and polishing, the PMO said in a statement.
