The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday joined the critics of "aggressive" Ashokan lions atop the new Parliament building, asserting nobody has the permission to tamper with a constitutional heritage "in any manner". Such kind of "tampering" should be avoided as it hurts the constitutional tradition of the country, it said.
"The AAP believes that nobody has permission to tamper with any constitutional heritage in any manner. Such kind of tampering should be avoided as it hurts constitutional tradition of the country," the party's chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj told a press conference.
Earlier in the day, several opposition leaders and activists among others accused the government of distorting the national emblem by replacing the "graceful and regally confident" Ashokan lions with those having menacing and aggressive posture and sought immediate change.
"Narendra Modi Ji, please observe the face of the Lion, whether it is representing the statue of Great Sarnath or a distorted version of the GIR lion. Please check it and if it needs, mend the same, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, said on Twitter.
The BJP, however, asserted that the national emblem, unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Parliament's new building on Monday, was an exact replica of the one in Sarnath, and accused the Opposition of deliberately trying to create one controversy after another for political reasons.
BJP chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Anil Baluni said the real reason behind the Opposition's allegation is its frustration over India creating its own Parliament building under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, replacing the one created by the British over 150 years back.
AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh had on Monday reacted sharply to the demeanor of the Ashokan lions cast atop the new Parliament building. "I want to ask 130 crore Indians whether those who change the national symbol should be called anti-national or not," he had said on Twitter.
