Parliament inauguration became a religious event: Kerala CM

KOZHIKODE: Launching a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has alleged that the inauguration ceremony of the new Parliament building was another example of the "deliberate attempts" that are being carried out to "attack democracy" in the country.

The Chief Minister was addressing an event in memory of late minister MP Veerendrakumar on Sunday.

Addressing the event, CM Vijayan said, "Today, there are deliberate attempts to attack democracy and the inaugural ceremony of Parliament is the best example. In our country, secularism is under huge attack. RSS is not in compliance with India being a secular nation so they wish to change India into a religious country".

CM Vijayan said that the "religious ceremony" should not be happened in the Parliament. "What happened in the Parliament should not be happening in a democratic government. It became a religious ceremony of a particular religion which is not suitable for a secular nation. The country is going through a critical time. Democracy is getting threats from many sections. They (BJP) want the country to be religious," he added.

Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the new Parliament building to the nation. He also installed the historic 'Sengol' right next to the chair of the Lok Sabha chairman and participated in the 'sarva dharma prarthana' (multi-faith prayer) where priests of different faiths recited their verses.

The Kerala CM further slammed the BJP-led Centre over Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). "We all are Indian citizens. Our citizenship was not on the basis of our religion because in India. But in our country, the CAA was introduced overthrowing all existing principles. It was to establish that citizenship is granted based on one's religion. There was a strong protest against this in the country. Kerala declared earlier that it wouldn't be implemented here. We still stand by it," he further added.