With the new Parliament’s sensational inauguration, several controversies also seem to strike upon the nation. Citizens argue as to who should be the one inaugurating the new Parliament and what the role of the ‘Sengol’ is.
Twenty-five political parties have confirmed, mainly from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), their presence at the opening of the new building. The opening of the building by PM Narendra Modi has sparked a row amid political parties. The Centre on Thursday said it had received a confirmed list of 25 political parties, including some which are not a part of NDA. The Opposition parties have blamed PM Modi, for “completely sidelining” President Droupadi Murmu by not asking her to open the new building. The parties claim such an act is an insult to the high office of the President and is a violation of the letter and spirit of the Constitution.
Apart from that, the controversial ‘Sengol’, a staff/sceptre/wand, which was received by India’s first Prime Minister, Jawarhal Nehru, as a symbol of authority and power upon achievement of a free India is to be placed in the new building. Dating back in Tamil history, this particular Sengol “symbolised transfer of power from the British to India in 1947”, according to reports officially confirmed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on May 24.
Speaking to the media, home minister Amit Shah said the historical sceptre from Tamil Nadu, which was received by Nehru to represent a transfer of power from the British and was kept in a museum in Allahabad, will be installed in the new Parliament building to be inaugurated by PM Modi on May 28. Amit Shah launched a sharp attack on the Congress on May 26, asking why it hated Indian traditions and keeping a sacred symbol labelled a walking stick. He said the Opposition party had created a controversy over the Sengol — a historic sceptre from Tamil Nadu — by terming it as “bogus” and undermining its role at the time of Independence.
According to the BJP leaders, the gifting of the sceptre by the mutt’s pontiffs was a part of multiple rituals that took place during the transfer of power in 1947. The claim is that “Mountbatten asked Nehru how the reins of India be handed over, who subsequently asked Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, who said that it should be done in the way it was done centuries ago by south India’s Chera, Chola and Pandya dynasties. The suggestion was accepted, and he was responsible for making complete arrangements. The ceremony was organised before midnight, and a special song was sung when Nehru accepted the Sengol”.
The Congress termed the entire story “bogus”, with senior leader Jairam Ramesh claiming a “lack of documented evidence”.
The best reporting on the Sengol is in The Hindu—which reports on its symbolism and rediscovery in Allahabad. The Hindu also put together a very good fact check.