STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: “History will record, we attended the session in two Parliament Houses”.
This was the instant emotional response of Union Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh when while walking up to the stairs of the new Parliament building today, he found himself surrounded by a group of media persons who wanted him to comment on how he felt while making his maiden entry into the new House to attend the inaugural session to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It has not occurred to many, said Dr Jitendra Singh, that we, the members of the 17th Lok Sabha are blessed with the unique opportunity of being the only batch of MPs who spent a part of the five-year Parliamentary term in the old Parliament building and will now be spending the rest of the five-year Parliamentary term in the new Parliamentary building. He said, right from the day the independent India adopted the Westminster pattern of parliament based on Lower House and Upper house, this rare chance was not destined to happen ever in the past and is unlikely to happen for over a century in the future. It is a record in itself, he added.
It is absolutely a historic moment, which happens but rarely in the life of someone, said Dr Jitendra Singh and thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making this moment happen. He said, “While Modi has made this moment happen, Almighty has blessed us to live this moment”.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, the earlier Parliament House had also witnessed history in the making and the Constituent Assembly headed by Dr Ambedakar had conducted its deliberations in the iconic Central Hall. But, for the last several decades, he said, it was being realised that the Parliament building which had been constructed by the British to accommodate a handful of functionaries was now becoming obsolete, inadequate and congested to provide a comfortable working facility to all the Members of Parliament, their Staff, the Secretariat Staff, the Security Personnel and a host of other departments associated with the functioning of the Parliament.
Describing the new Parliament building as the most modern state-of-the-art piece of architecture, simultaneously also blending the traditional India ethos and cultural richness, Dr Jitendra Singh said, in the times to come, visitors from across the world would come to India to have a look at this marvel of creation just as in the past they came looking for Taj Mahal. This is indeed the grand monument of Modi’s New India, he said.