Congress slams govt over statues' relocation within Parliament, calls it 'unilateral' move

The Congress on Sunday claimed that the decision to relocate statues within the Parliament premises was taken by the ruling regime "unilaterally" and its sole objective was to not have the statues of Mahatma Gandhi and B.R. The opposition party's attack came ahead of Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar inaugurating the 'Prerna Sthal', which will house all statues of the freedom fighters and other leaders that were earlier placed at different places in the Parliament complex. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that according to the Lok Sabha website, Parliament's Committee on Portraits and Statues last met on December 18, 2018 and it was not even reconstituted during the 17th Lok Sabha which also functioned for the first time without the Constitutional post of Deputy Speaker. "Its sole objective is NOT to have statues of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Ambedkar – traditional sites of peaceful, legitimate and democratic protests – right next to where Parliament actually meets," Mr. Ramesh said in a post on X. The Lok Sabha secretariat has said the 'Prerna Sthal' has been constructed so that the dignitaries and other visitors coming to the Parliament House Complex could conveniently see and pay tributes at these statues in one place.