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Indian democracy’s history is now high-tech story session!

New Delhi, Aug 14 (UNI)

The history of world’s largest democracy has now assumed the dimension of high-tech story telling.

‘‘Parliament Museum’’, which was inaugurated by President APJ Abdul Kalam this evening, depicts the continuum of democratic heritage in India with the help of walk-through period settings with sound-light-video synchronisation.

Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and several Cabinet ministers were among those who attended the function.

An idea of Mr Chatterjee, the Museum, located within the precincts of the Parliament Building, narrates the story of the India’s Democratic Heritage with the large screen computer multi-media and immersive visualisation with multi-screen panoramic projections, virtual reality and animatronics.

To ensure that the posterity takes pride on the sacrifices of those who shed their blood and sweat, the Museum has a Resource Centre with a fully computerised textual and visual information bank.

A large-screen multi-media projection, with artefacts of the time, reveals the story of legislative reforms starting from the Charter Act of 1813 til the India Independence Act, 1947.

A computerised multi-screen projection presents the story of the freedom movement, transfer of power, framing of the Constitution, founding of the Republic and establishmjent of a pluralistic democracy with equal rights for all.

The multi-screen projection also enables visitors to have a view of the calligraphed copies of the Constitution in Hindi and English and access every page of it in a multi-media programme.

Large-screen interactive computer also projects important constitutional provisions with still photos and short video clippings of all Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Prime Ministers and Chief Justices of the Supreme Court.

The strength and resilience of Indian democracy has been shown by recreating polling stations, vote counting centres and a short video on the election process.

Visitors can also hope to find themselves in the simulated Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha and take part in the proceedings of the two Houses through computer interactives.

A recreated Central Hall of Parliament presents animatronics of Pandit Nehru delivering his historic ’Tryst with Destiny’ speech in the midnight between August 14 and 15, 1947, and again speaking in the last session of the Constituent Assembly on January 24, 1950.

Visitors can take their seats along with the national leaders of that time, and observe Nehru speaking with full animation.

The Museum also depicts the evolution of the Indian Parliament buildings from thge sketches of Edwin Lutyens to the present Parliamentary Library Building, along with the visuals of various state assemblies and Parliaments of the world -- all with the help of computerised multi-media mechanisms.

Reserachers and scholars, even common visitors, can have access to a fully computerised information bank with visual and textual references stored in digital format.