Lucknow | Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya on Sunday targeted the Narendra Modi government by claiming that only "fundamentalist Brahmin gurus" were invited for the installation of the sengol, a ceremonial sceptre, in the new parliament building.

He said if the BJP dispensation had faith in India's secularism and sovereign character, then priests of all religions practised in the country would have been invited to the inauguration ceremony.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new Parliament building here on Sunday morning and installed the historic Sengol in the Lok Sabha chamber.

Amid Vedic chants by priests from Karnataka's Shringeri Math, the prime minister performed "Ganapati Homam" to invoke Gods to bless the inauguration of the new Parliament building. Modi prostrated before the Sengol and sought blessings from high priests of various adheenams in Tamil Nadu with the holy sceptre in hand.

"It is extremely unfortunate that only fundamentalist Brahmin gurus of the south were called for the installation of the sengol. If the BJP government had faith in India as a secular sovereign nation, then all religious leaders of the country, such as Buddhist dharmacharyas (monks), Jain acharyas (sages), Guru Granthis, Muslim religious leaders (maulanas), Christian religious leaders (pastor) etc. would have been invited," Maurya said in a tweet in Hindi.

"By not doing so, the BJP has shown its vile mentality and despicable mentality. The BJP government is walking on the path of autocracy by establishing the sengol and also trying to establish Brahminism by calling the Brahmin religious leaders of the South," he said.

Maurya was a cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath government but joined Samajwadi Party ahead of the 2022 Assembly election. He contested from the Fazilnagar seat in Kushinagar district on Samajwadi Party ticket but lost. Maurya was later made MLC by the party.