India's New Parliament inauguration divides politicians

Gulf News

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00:00India's new parliament was finally inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi on Sunday.

00:09With much controversy surrounding the event, 20 opposition parties stayed away, saying

00:14that the President should have done the inauguration and not the Prime Minister.

00:18But all of that is one controversy.

00:21What we should really be thinking about is what has happened to parliament as an institution.

00:25Over the years, it has been steadily undermined.

00:29Parliament sittings are now becoming shorter and shorter, and this is as per data that

00:33is officially out there.

00:35Fewer and fewer bills are actually being debated and discussed properly, or being sent to parliamentary

00:39committees for scrutiny.

00:41Opposition members feel that their voices are being drowned out because the government

00:45is in no mood to communicate with them.

00:48In fact, this controversy over the inauguration shows how bitterly relations have reached

00:53a point between the government and the opposition.

00:55It's also part of a larger narrative that the opposition sees, where they see co-operative

01:01federalism being undermined by the government.

01:03There was a Neeti Aayog meeting a few days ago, chaired by the Prime Minister, and 11

01:08chief ministers were absent from that meeting.

01:11That's quite a telling state of political affairs, and it only goes to show that things

01:15are going to get more bitter and more nasty in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.

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