India gets new parliament building

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a new parliament complex tomorrow, the centrepiece of a $2.4 billion project that aims to remake British colonial-era buildings in the capital's centre and give it a distinct Indian identity.

The inauguration, and the ongoing makeover of the heart of New Delhi based on Indian culture, traditions and symbols, comes a year before parliamentary elections in which Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will pitch its strong Hindu nationalist credentials, besides its performance in office over the last decade, to seek a third term.

The Modi government has also similarly renovated some of Hinduism's most revered pilgrimage centres since first sweeping to power in 2014.

The new, triangular-shaped parliament complex is just across from the heritage building built by British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker in 1927, two decades before India's independence. The old parliament will be converted into a museum, the government has said.

It has said a new parliament building is badly needed as the existing structure "is highly stressed" for a number of reasons including capacity, infrastructure, technology and safety. But critics of Modi see the new parliament, designed by an architect from Gujarat, as an attempt to bolster his brand of nationalism as part of a personal legacy.

Opposition parties have announced a boycott of the inauguration. The president, the highest executive of the country, should open the new parliament and not Modi, the opposition members said.

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