Hyderabad: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday said that his party will boycott the inauguration of the new Parliament House by Prime Minister Narendra Modi “as this planned action by the Prime Minister deals a blow to the constitutionally established separation of powers of the Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary”.
Several other opposition parties too have announced that they will boycott the ceremony scheduled for May 28 declaring that they are opposed to the Prime Minister’s plan.
Owaisi, who represents the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency in the Parliament, made it clear that his, and the AIMIM’s opposition to Modi’s plan was not about an individual but about preserving the separation of powers as delineated in the Constitution.
“From the beginning we have been saying that the Prime Minister should not have laid the foundation stone for the new Parliament. We opposed his unveiling of the national emblem on the Parliament House on the same grounds of separation of powers. Today too we say the Prime Minister should not inaugurate as this action by him violates the theory of separation of powers,” Owaisi said.
The Speaker is the custodian of the Lok Sabha and he should inaugurate the new Parliament. Our demand is that Modi should announce that it would be inaugurated by the Speaker, in which case, the AIMIM will attend the event. Some opposition parties, who do not understand the Constitution, are pitching for the President to inaugurate it. But Article 53(1) makes it clear that the executive power of the Union will be vested in the President, which makes the President too part of the Executive, Owaisi explained.
‘It is our belief that if the Prime Minister goes ahead to inaugurate, then it amounts to interference in the domain of the Legislature, and such a move does not bode well for the basic structure of the Constitution and separation of powers of the Legislature, Executive, and the Judiciary,” Owaisi said.
