NEW PARLIAMENT BUILDING UPHOLDS INDIAN HISTORY, CULTURE: HARDEEP PURI

'Old Parliament was the council chamber of a colonial power', says Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri

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Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri has said that the new Parliament building, constructed as part of the Central Vista Redevelopment Project, would be talked about in the future because of its latest technology and quality of capturing Indian history and culture.

Sharing his experience at 'Capital Dialogue' 2023, a special series organised by Newx and The Sunday Guardian Foundation to mark the foundation of India's new Parliament building in the city, he said the old Parliament building was council chamber of a colonial power and a strong need was felt for the new building. "We needed a new Parliament building. Frankly, we should have got it 50 years earlier. The fact of the matter is that the old building, conceptualised in 1912 and operationalised in 1926, was never designed to be the parliament of the independent and economically growing India. It was the council chamber of a colonial power. It was not that it was not part of the narrative but when you read internal files of the government then you get to know that there were a lot of people who wanted it," he said.

He pointed out that there were letters written by the former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Urban Development Secretary and Congress leader Jayaram Ramesh, among others, advocating for the building of a new parliament.