Jun 27, 2024 04:01 PM IST
On Wednesday, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla started his second stint in the top office pitching for a new vision and new resolve but also called the Emergency a “dark day in the history of India”
New Delhi: The Congress party on Thursday lodged a formal objection with the Lok Sabha Speaker over the latter’s reference to the Emergency on Wednesday, calling it a “travesty of Parliamentary traditions”.
On Wednesday, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla started his second stint in the top office pitching for a new vision and new resolve but also called the Emergency a “dark day in the history of India”, reading out a resolution on this to mark the 49th anniversary of Emergency, and asking the House to observe two-minutes silence even as the Opposition erupted in protests on Wednesday.
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On Thursday, after Rahul Gandhi was formally named Leader of Opposition by Birla, Gandhi and a group of Opposition leaders met Birla and during the conversation, conveyed to him that the reference could have been avoided.
“We discussed many issues about Parliament. Rahul ji, the LoP, informed him (Birla) that it was a political reference and it could have been avoided,” said Congress general secretary and Lok Sabha MP KC Venugopal.
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Subsequently, Venugopal also wrote to Birla: “ I am writing this in the context of a very grave matter impacting upon the very credibility of the institution of Parliament. Yesterday, that is June 26, 2024, at the time of offering felicitations on your election as Speaker Lok Sabha, there was a general camaraderie in the House as such occasions generate.”
“However, what followed thereafter, which is a reference from the Chair after your acceptance speech, in regard to the declaration of Emergency half a century ago, is deeply shocking,” he said.
“Making of such a political reference from the Chair is unprecedented in the annals of the history of Parliament. This coming from the Chair as one of the first duties of a newly-elected Speaker assumes even graver proportions. I, on behalf of the National Congress, express our profound concern and anguish over this travesty of Parliamentary traditions,” Venugopal added.
The objection came on a day when President Droupadi Murmu’s speech to both Houses again contained a reference to Emergency, and two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to it — and is seen as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s counter to the Opposition and the Congress waving around a pocket edition of the Constitution to point to what these parties describe as efforts by the government to subvert and amend the Constitution (a claim that these parties used to good effect in the just concluded national election).
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On Wednesday, after the Prime Minister introduced his council of ministers to the House, Birla read out a resolution condemning the Emergency, “This House deeply condemns the imposition of National Emergency in 1975 by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. June 25, 1975, would always be written down as a dark day in the history of India.”
“During the Emergency, people had to suffer the brunt of compulsory sterilization imposed by the Congress government, arbitrariness in the name of removing encroachment in cities and the evil policies of the government. This House would like to express its condolences to all those people,” Birla added.
He further said, “This house extends its respect to those who fought against the provisions of Emergency to protect Democracy in India.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi later thanked Birla for condemning the Emergency which was invoked on 25 June 1975, by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
