POLITICS OF THE PARLIAMENT BUILDING

The political culture of our country is becoming increasingly toxic.

Never before have we seen such a binary situation where the opposition parties believe their only job is to oppose everything the government does.

This thread exposes them.

It does not matter if the issue is:

~ for the common good
~ something they themselves had planned
~ affecting security and safety of our country or people

Latest in this hall of shame is the opposition to the new Parliament building which @narendramodi did bhumi puja this week.

I am analysing this issue from three major angles.

1. Why a new Parliament building?
2. What is the politics around this?
3. What does this mean to Indian polity?

For my first and second angles, I will share excerpts from three stalwarts in their discussion in Kolahala TV.

They are, Padmashri TK Vishwanathan (Retd Gen Secretary of Parliamentary A), Sri K. Srinivasan , Retd Director (Reporting), and Sri R Rajagopalan, senior journalist who has reported from the Parliament for over 40 years.

Why the new building?

See the shocking reasons below.

1. Health & Safety: The current building is very old, unsafe and used

a. IIT Roorkee's study reveals that the building will not withstand an earthquake magnitude of just 6 RS

b. The building does not have a fire clearance certificate. The fire department refused to certify.

During UPA, the kitchen was moved to adjacent building as the 50 gas bottles were ticking time bombs in the building

c. When it rains outside, slabs keep falling inside. Dust fell from the roof on Late PV Narasimha Rao when he was replying to a member when Rajiv Gandhi was PM.

A net was placed below the ceiling to stop big pieces of slab from falling. On the II floor, slabs fall often. Few years ago, big part of the ceiling fell near Room 62

d. There is dangerous gas emanating from the sewage under RS and in other places, and that gives a foul smell.

Poisonous gases circulate in the chambers and at least two leaders have swooned due to this.

You will be shocked to know that one was Sonia Gandhi, who is now opposing the new building.

The other was Najma Heptulla

e. There are wires hanging everywhere (II floor especially) - short circuit risk is very high especially in hot summer when the temperature hits 52 degrees C.

The entire wiring is a century old and it poses serious risk of fire from short circuit any time

f. Third floor has very narrow pathways. Once @nsitharaman 's clothes got caught in one of the cupboards on the way and the cupboard fell. She could have been seriously harmed.

g. Kitchen is full of cockroaches, spiders, and rats. Cats and dogs roam many parts of the building

Monkeys visit the third floor often. Once a cat bit DMK MP Vetriselvan. It's like a zoo.

h. Mulayam S Yadav once fell in the building tripping on a fallen brick

i. Toilets in very unhygienic conditions

j. Speaker's chamber smells foul

k. When Bush visited, his security quoted IIT Roorkee's report to advise that Indian Parliament building was unsafe - a reason why India does not invite foreign delegates there.

We help other countries build their Parliament houses, but our own is in very shabby condition.

2. Space - People in the parliament - MPs, staff, and visitors have increased significantly in the last 100 years.

a. Staff are bout 6500, incl security. MPs, their staff will be another 1500

b. MPs sit cramped up, and no new MPs could walk in without tripping on the other

d. The building was not designed to withstand so much stress for 93 years from the increased footfalls

e. Parliament is growing with more MPs by 2026, and the space is just not enough

f. All MPs don't have their own rooms let alone a meeting place for visitors

3. Preservation of information and knowledge

a. Parliament is a paper-less office now. So, all information is stored in computers.

A short circuit or electrical outage could cause loss of data and information. This is a risk for the country

4. Maintenance

a. We spend a lot of money - crores - on maintaining the current building. Despite that, the risks remain

b. In order to refurbish this building, the contractors need it vacant for 2 full years - this is not a remote possibility

What is the politics about this?

We see how Congress goes 180 degrees on their own promises. Parliament building debate is another such shame for them. Why? I quote Sri @RAJAGOPALAN1951 Sir

Congress initiated, participated in, and approved a new building during their tenure.

1. Chintamani Panigrahi, a CONGRESS leader and MoS Home Affairs in 1985, wrote to the Sel. Comm on the need to have a new building, quoting the 'scars' on the building

2. Meira Kumar, Congress Speaker continuously sought reports on the condition of the building

K Srinivasan, the then Director (Reporting) had sent 56 such reports after personal inspection of the building.

Meira Kumar refused the use of kitchen, for fear of fire. Her successor, Sumitra Mahajan had also progressed the cause of new building

3. In 2012 July, Radhey Shyam, Officer on Special Duty had written a detailed letter to Union Minister of Housing and Urban affairs on behalf of Meira Kumar asking permission for CPWD to undertake feasibility studies for the new building

4. Another letter was written to PM Manmohan Singh by Meria Kumar stating the same.

5. It was during this time, that Congress requested environmental clearance for a new building.

The CONGRESS minister who gave a green signal to this was none other than Jairam Ramesh.

6. This issue was discussed and debated in the Parliament in 2019. Congress actively participated and agreed to a new building.

Together, they approved 971cr towards this. This is not a huge amount due to the economies of scale - this building is part of the Rs 20,000-crore...

...Central Vista project, which aims to build and refurbish the government buildings on the 13.4-km Rajpath. Congress heartily agreed to all this.

Now the same Congress has gone 180 degree on this and is opposing this move. Tamil media has picked it up as an issue.

The MSM which is largely owned by the DMK should not be opposing this as MK built another assembly building without such risks to the existing building.

I understand that many in TN media may not even have seen the Parliamentary building.

But then they should at least ask senior journalists like @RAJAGOPALAN1951 before raising squabbles.

Most interesting float in TN today is Kamal Haasan.

He is someone with an unbridled tongue with no scruples. He is just asking questions in the air, without checking facts.

Seriously TN, do you want to have such politicians representing you?

Pandemic has not been a deterrent to major activities that boost economic growth.

A lot of govt projects keep going. I don't think Earthquakes, Fires, or Short Circuits wait for Corona to be over.

If Congress started this idea of new building, then why are they opposing this?

This is the toxic culture I spoke about. Opposing anything because it's done by BJP. Don’t bother about facts. They are doing this in the hope that in time, people will slowly start feeling that BJP

is onto a few wrong things.

A communist social conditioning by repetition technique.

What does this mean to the Indian polity?

If a society or system goes binary, the mightier force will eat away the weaker one. Congress is hoping that they can eat away the pro-nationalistic

and transparent new culture of governance by constantly attacking it.

Congress is under delusion that the GOP of India is still mighty.

This is where they are going wrong. With the information and factchecking on finger tips, more and more people adopt a position today.

The fence sitters, the agnostics, the atheists, the hermits will all be compelled to take sides in this age of social media and alternative truth.

This collective mind will decide in an organic process which is a mightier force and will isolate and weaken the other ones.

I don't need to say which is which.