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The Opposition on Sunday attacked the government over the absence of Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and ministers from the traditional event to mark the birth anniversary of those whose portraits adorn Parliament's Central Hall and this includes India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and other party leaders attended the function.
"Extraordinary scene today in Parliament at the traditional function to mark the birth anniversary of those whose portraits adorn the Central Hall. Speaker Lok Sabha absent. Chairman Rajya Sabha absent. Not a single Minister present. Can it get more atrocious than this?!" Congress party's chief whip in the Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh tweeted.
The other Opposition parties too slammed the government.
Tagging Ramesh's tweet, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said, "Nothing surprises me anymore. This dispensation is destroying India's great institutions, including #Parliament one day at a time."
Born in 1889, Nehru remains India's longest-serving prime minister. Floral tributes are paid to his portrait in the Central Hall of Parliament every year.
The function at the Central Hall this morning was also attended by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.
The portrait of Nehru was unveiled by then President of India, Dr S Radhakrishnan, in the Central Hall of Parliament House on 5 May, 1966.
The Congress had earlier hit out at the government after the photograph of Nehru was missing from the posters made for the huge Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav" – the celebrations planned for the 75th anniversary of Independence Day.
Calling the move "atrocious", Ramesh had then tweeted: "Not surprising from this regime and its toadies masquerading as scholars but atrocious nevertheless."
His party colleague Gaurav Gogoi said no country removes the first prime minister from a website about the freedom struggle and said the move was was "petty" and an "injustice". Another Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said the Indian Council of Historical Research or ICHR -- had "disgraced" itself.