Delhi Confidential: Matching Barricades

After the new Parliament building was inaugurated in 2023, the Parliament House complex has seen a range of new features — from landscaping to relocation of statues to new uniforms for staff. Soon, visitors to the complex would get to see “aesthetically pleasing” barricades in place of the usual ones placed by the security. The CPWD has designed the barricades to match the look of the new building, in the same red sandstone colour and cast iron design mimicking the jaalis inside. The triangular Parliament building will be displayed at the centre of it.

Mock Session Plan

Now that the government has announced that there is no special session to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Emergency declaration, the BJP is considering a plan to conduct mock parliament sessions across the country. Party sources said there is a suggestion that mock sessions showing how Parliament passed the 42nd amendment of the Constitution — during the Emergency to centralise power and curtail judiciary — should be conducted in every district. The controversial remarks made during the debate, including the one made by Congress leader C M Stephen daring the courts to defy Parliament (he had said “I don’t know whether they (courts) will have the temerity to defy this Parliament. If they do it, we have our machinery) will be played in the mock parliament sessions.