Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated a sleek new Parliament complex, part of a more than $2 billion project to renovate India’s decrepit colonial-era center of government in New Delhi.
But the opening ceremony, which reflected Mr. Modi for religious and Hindu nationalist symbolism, was boycotted by his political opposition. And outside, in the streets, the police were brutally breaking up a demonstration.
Most opposition lawmakers in both houses, about 250 people, stayed away to protest what they called the latest example of the prime minister’s overreach, which they say is undermining the country’s constitutional democracy. ‘India.
In a rare statement of unity, about 20 opposition parties rebuked Mr. Modi for assuming a role they said was reserved for India’s President Droupadi Murmu, who has the symbolic but important role of guardian of the Constitution.
“The President is not only the head of state in India, but is also an integral part of Parliament. She convenes, prorogues and addresses Parliament,” the parties said in the statement. “When the soul of democracy has been sucked out of Parliament, we find no value in a new building.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party of Mr. Modi has rejected these claims, noting that previous prime ministers had inaugurated additions and annexes to the old Parliament building.
But opposition parties said the election of Mr. Modi’s presiding over the inauguration was consistent with a more general flouting of the parliamentary process by his party, including the promotion, with little debate, of controversial bills that have altered the foundations of India’s union.
The inauguration (which Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi likened to a “coronation”) was kept under tight security as women fighters who have been camped out in protest for over a month in central Delhi had vowed to stage a march on the same day. The protesters, who include Olympic medalists, have accused the head of the wrestling federation, who is also an MP from Modi’s party, of sexual harassment and complained that the government was trying to brush aside their concerns .
When the fighters’ march broke through the security barricades, the police broke through in a chaotic and violent scene, arresting the fighters and dismantling their camp.
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the accused lawmaker, attended the inauguration and posted pictures of him posing inside the new Parliament.
The former Parliament building was the site of great moments in the nation’s history, such as the declaration of independence from Great Britain in 1947 and the adoption of the Constitution that created India as a democratic republic. But it no longer met the needs of what will soon be the most populous country in the world. There was a lack of room for the 543 lawmakers in the lower house, a number that will likely increase in the coming years. Sometimes pieces of its ceiling fell on the members, and a few years ago, the air conditioning smelled so bad that a session had to be postponed.
The new complex, built at a cost of about $120 million and designed by Bimal Patel, an Indian architect, incorporates the latest technology and expands seating to 888 in the main hall of the lower house.
Ronojoy Sen, political scientist at the National University of Singapore and author of a book on the history of India’s Parliament, he said symbolism and timing also mattered.
“The new Parliament is being built in time for the 2024 general election,” said Sen. “More importantly, it will continue as part of Modi’s legacy and as a link to India’s ‘ancient’ and ‘timeless’ democracy, which Modi has often spoken about.”
The campaign for next year’s general election is in full swing, with opposition parties scrambling to find a formula to challenge Mr. Modi as he prepares to seek a third term.
The ruling party of India presents Mr. Modi as the leader needed at the time of India’s rise on the world stage. At an event in New Delhi on Friday that marked nine years of Mr. Modi, party leaders listed progress under his watch — expansive investment in infrastructure, improved social welfare programs, increased global standing — as reasons for a third term of his “decisive leadership.”
Although the opposition parties have often fought each other, many have faced a common threat that Mr. Modi unleashes the weapons of the state against them. In recent months, they seem to be coalescing around a common narrative: Mr. Modi is turning the country’s democracy into a one-party rule that is failing to deliver the economic growth, especially employment, that India needs.
“The dying of dissent and democratic expression has forced opposition parties to put aside their differences and come together to oppose Mr Modi,” said Arati Jerath, a political commentator based in Nova Delhi. “The opposition hopes to make the protection of democracy and federalism its main focus in next year’s general elections. However, much more work will need to be done to shape a popular and engaging narrative around these issues.”
Analysts and rights activists say that Mr. Modi has centralized power around him in a way not seen since the 1970s, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s declaration of emergency brought India’s democracy closer to dictatorship.
What makes the approach of Mr. Modi be different from the authoritarian turn of Ms. Gandhi, they say, is their religious foil: a lifelong member of a right-wing Hindu movement that aims to turn India’s secular system into a Hindu-first nation.
In a Hindu prayer ceremony during the inauguration (which also included an interfaith ceremony later), Mr. Modi prostrated before a scepteran object that has come to encapsulate the meaning of the new Parliament: a fresh start by an ambitious builder, determined not only to remove the remnants of India’s colonial past but increasingly to replace the secular government that follow.
The ruling party said the scepter, given by Hindu priests to India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, as a symbol of the transfer of power from the British in 1947, had been relegated to a corner of a small museum .
In social media posts showing Mr. With Modi at the helm now, party leaders made it clear what his return meant: a recovery of Hindu glory that they believe has been unfairly undermined by India’s secular constitutional structure.
Mr. Modi, flanked by a dozen Hindu priests, carried the scepter down the corridor of the new Parliament, installing it to the right of the speaker’s seat.
“This new Parliament is not just a building; it is a reflection of the aspirations of 1.4 billion Indians,” said Mr. Mode. “This is the temple of our democracy.”
