In his Lok Sabha address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recollected iconic moments of the old Parliament a day before moving the House proceedings to the new building. Modi in his speech acknowledged the contributions of leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee towards Parliament and democracy.
“There have been sweet and sour experiences, there has also been an atmosphere of bickering, and sometimes an atmosphere of conflict and sometimes, there has been an atmosphere of joy as well. All these memories are our shared memories, our shared heritage and hence, we also share the pride," PM Modi said
When India got freedom at the stroke of the midnight, its first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru gave this epoch-making speech to the Constituent Assembly.
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Hailing Indira Gandhi’s decision on Pakistan’s partition in 1971, PM Modi said: “This Parliament will remember Indira Gandhi’s decision on Pakistan’s partition and formation of Bangladesh”.
Ex-Prime Minister Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee had the chance to run the Central government for only a period of 13 days. During this no-confidence vote, the poet-politician gave his most momentous ‘sarkarein aayengi, sarkarein jaayengi’ speech. This, however, was not the only time that Vajpayee had to face a no-confidence vote as in 1998 allies left him once again and the government fell within 13 months.
PM Modi also paid his tribute to the martyrs who died during the terrorist attack on the old Parliament building in 2001. The attack led to the deaths of the six Delhi Police personnel, two Parliament Security Service personnel and a gardener. The five attackers involved were killed outside the Parliament premises, leading to heightened tensions between India and Pakistan. Afzal Guru, one of the accused in the case, was hanged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on February 9, 2013.
PM Modi said that celebrations took place everywhere when Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were created. He added that the creation of Telangana left bitter memories and people in Telangana as well as Andhra Pradesh could not celebrate. "Celebrations everywhere when Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand carved out; but creation of Telangana left bitter memories," Modi said.
In order to commemorate roll out of the Goods and Services Tax, the government held a function at the Central Hall of Parliament on the midnight of June 30, 2017. The occasion was attended by former President Pranab Mukherjee, former Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, PM Modi, ex-Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan, and late Arun Jaitley.
Apart from Nehru and Vajpayee’s iconic speeches and Indira Gandhi’s inimitable 1971 feat, PM Modi also recounted the revocation of Article 370 in 2019 and the reorganisation of the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.