CDS (II) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 120 of 120

Correct — B, Peacock Lotus. The three parts of the new Parliament building take their design cues from India's national symbols — the banyan tree, the peacock and the lotus. The Lok Sabha chamber is built on the peacock, the national bird, and is finished in the blue-green of a peacock's plumage, seating 888 members with room for 1,272 when the two Houses sit together. The Rajya Sabha chamber is built on the lotus, the national flower, and is finished in red, seating 384. The third symbol, the banyan, fills the open courtyard at the centre of the building rather than either chamber, which is why it appears in two options here as a decoy for one of the two Houses. The building itself is triangular, spread over about 64,500 square metres, designed by Bimal Patel of HCP with Tata Projects as the contractor, and was inaugurated on 28 May 2023 — four months before this paper.

• (a)Lotus Banyan — Both wrong. The lotus belongs to the Rajya Sabha, not the Lok Sabha, and the banyan is the theme of the open courtyard rather than of either chamber.
• (c)Peacock Banyan — Right about the Lok Sabha and wrong about the Rajya Sabha. The Upper House chamber is on the lotus theme; the banyan stands in the central open-sky courtyard.
• (d)Lotus Peacock — The two themes exactly reversed. The peacock belongs to the Lok Sabha and the lotus to the Rajya Sabha, not the other way round.

The new Parliament House was built alongside the old circular building because the 1927 structure was running out of space and could not have held a larger Lok Sabha. Both Houses moved into the new building on 19 September 2023, and on the same date the old building was formally renamed Samvidhan Sadan, so that the name Sansad Bhavan now attaches to the new triangular structure. The interiors carry national symbols deliberately: the peacock for the Lower House, the lotus for the Upper House, and the banyan in the open courtyard between them.

The item is a straight two-cell match and the fastest route is by colour and symbolism rather than by memory of a news report. The Lok Sabha chamber is unmistakably blue-green, which is peacock plumage; the Rajya Sabha is red, and the lotus reads across to it. Behind that lies a neat mnemonic — the Lower House, the directly elected one, takes the national bird, and the Upper House takes the national flower. The banyan is the third national symbol used in the building but not in a chamber at all, so any option pairing a chamber with the banyan can be discarded at sight, which removes two of the four. A caution for anyone looking this up: since 19 September 2023 the circular colonnaded building of 1927 is Samvidhan Sadan, and Parliament House now means the new triangular building described here.

• The Lok Sabha chamber of the new Parliament building is designed on the peacock theme, in blue-green, and seats 888 members.
• The Rajya Sabha chamber is designed on the lotus theme, in red, and seats 384 members.
• The banyan tree, the third national symbol used, stands in the open-sky courtyard rather than in either chamber.
• The building is triangular, covers about 64,500 square metres, was designed by Bimal Patel of HCP and built by Tata Projects, and was inaugurated on 28 May 2023.
• Both Houses began sitting in it on 19 September 2023, the day the old circular Parliament House was renamed Samvidhan Sadan.

• Reversing the two themes; the peacock is the Lower House and the lotus the Upper House.
• Pairing a chamber with the banyan, which is the courtyard's symbol.
• Calling the old circular building Sansad Bhavan; since September 2023 that name belongs to the new triangular building and the old one is Samvidhan Sadan.

As a two-cell match between the two Houses and the symbols or colours of their chambers, or as a single-line fact about the building's inauguration.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The banyan tree, one of the three national symbols used in the new Parliament building, is represented in

  • (a)The Lok Sabha chamber
  • (b)The Rajya Sabha chamber
  • (c)The open-sky courtyard
  • (d)The Constitution Hall

  Answer(c) The open-sky courtyard — the peacock is the Lok Sabha theme and the lotus the Rajya Sabha theme.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  After September 2023 the old circular Parliament House of 1927 is officially known as

  • (a)Sansad Bhavan
  • (b)Samvidhan Sadan
  • (c)Central Hall
  • (d)Rashtriya Sadan

  Answer(b) Samvidhan Sadan — the name Sansad Bhavan now refers to the new triangular Parliament building.