Bhumi Poojan: For the new Parliament House or Hindu Rashtra?

NEW DELHI—Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today laid the foundation stone of the new building for Parliament house that is expected to be ready by 2022.

However, the stone was laid with Hindu rituals of ‘hawan’. The Hindu priests were present on the occasion to make Modi perform the ceremony by chanting traditional Hindu shaloks. Performing Hindu rituals is being considered as a move that hit the secular character of the country which is full of diversity and claims itself as the “largest democracy of the world”.

Keeping in view the fact that followers of various religions live in this country, the Preamble of the Indian constitution declares India to be a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic. The objectives stated by the Preamble are to secure justice, liberty, equality to all citizens and promote fraternity to maintain unity and integrity of the nation”.

The secular ethos was violated when the stone of the parliament house was laid, which is called “temple of democracy”. So, some thinkers are considering its foundation laying ceremony not for new parliament building but “Hindu Rashtra” (Hindu nation) which is being formed by the ruling RSS-BJP in India.