Opinion: Dear Congress, Where Is Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Mohabbat Ki Dukan’ Now?

During the UPA II era, there was broad unanimity among all political parties that the old parliament building, built during the colonial era, had served its purpose and that there was an urgent need to construct a new building. Then Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and many senior Congress leaders, including ministers like Jairam Ramesh, went on record endorsing the proposal.

But since the UPA II was gripped by policy paralysis, the idea of a new parliament building met with the same fate as some other projects of national importance.

When Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014, those who were actively rooting for a new structure for the two Houses of parliament and its growing needs conveniently forgot about it. Modi too had other priorities during his first term (2014-19) in office. Perhaps he wanted the first-hand experience of working in the 1927-built old parliament House, to gauge what is needed for a new structure for the temple of democracy.In December 2020, when India was recovering socially and economically from disruptions caused by the Covid pandemic, the government announced the Central Vista project, of which the new parliament House was an integral part. The Congress-led opposition boycotted its foundation laying ceremony by PM Modi. They had their own ideas for why Modi was doing this. Why in the middle of  Covid restrictions, they questioned. While doing so they forgot about how nine months ago, Modi in a meeting with Chief Ministers, had moved from the mantra, ‘Jaan Hai to Jahan Hai’ to ‘Jaan Bhi Aur Jahan Bhi’ and thereafter to ‘Aapada Mei Awsar’.