Adivasi Cong to protest

Press Trust of India 

New Delhi

The All India Adivasi Congress on Thursday accused the Modi government of "insulting" tribals by not getting the country's first tribal president Droupadi Murmu to inaugurate the new Parliament building, as it announced a nationwide protest against the move on May 26.

Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, All India Adivasi Congress chief Shivajirao Moghe said Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the new Parliament building rather than the president is an "insult" to democracy.

"For the first time a tribal is the president, we have a woman president. This (inauguration by the PM) is an insult to tribals and women. The President is an important part of Parliament as it is the president that addresses the joint session of Parliament.

It is the President who should inaugurate Parliament," Moghe said. "I don't know whether this is happening because we are tribals," said the chief of All India Adivasi Congress department under the Indian National Congress.

Moghe's attack on the government came a day after 20 opposition parties announced their boycott of the inauguration of the new Parliament building by Prime Minister Modi.

Nineteen Opposition parties, including the Congress, Left, TMC, SP and AAP, came together to jointly announce the boycott, saying they find no value in a new building when the "soul of democracy has been sucked out." Separately