Nitish Kumar's no to Parliament inauguration, Niti Aayog meeting

Patna: Amid Opposition's call for boycotting the inauguration of the new Parliament building, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Saturday asserted that there is "no need" for a new Parliament building.

The new Parliament building is an attempt to write a new history by those who had no contribution in the freedom struggle, he told reporters here.

Kumar also expressed dismay over President Droupadi and Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar, who is also the chairman of Rajya Sabha, not being invited to the function.

JD(U), of which he is a senior leader, has announced that it will boycott the inauguration of the new Parliament building on Sunday. The party will observe a day-long fast here on the day to protest the inauguration of the new Parliament building by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"There is no need for a new Parliament building... Those who had no contribution to the country's fight for independence are trying to distort history. It is quite surprising that the President of India and the Vice-President, who is the chairman of Rajya Sabha, have not been invited to the inauguration programme,” Kumar, who had been a cabinet minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee, told reporters here.

"JD(U) strongly holds that the president is an important part of the country's parliamentary system. As the president, Droupadi Murmu holds the highest constitutional post in the country and she should have been invited by the Narendra Modi government to inaugurate the new Parliament. building,” the party's state president Umesh Singh Kushwaha told reporters here on Saturday.

Asked about his decision to skip the Niti Aayog meeting in Delhi on Saturday, Kumar said, “It was in the morning and I had other engagements in Patna during the day... Therefore I could not go to Delhi. Had the meeting been held in the afternoon, I would have attended it. I sent a list of ministers and officials who could attend the meeting, but there was no response from the Centre. So no representative from Bihar is attending today's meeting”.

On the Reserve Bank of India's decision to withdraw Rs 2000 denomination banknotes from circulation after September 30, 2023, Kumar said, "First one thousand currency notes were withdrawn and now Rs 2000... I fail to understand their intentions".

To questions on a likely meeting of non-BJP parties here to discuss opposition unity before the coming Lok Sabha elections, he said, "We will talk about it later".

Kumar had met Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee in March who asked him to hold a meeting of the opposition parties in Patna in May end.