- By Talibuddin Khan
- Wed, 26 Jun 2024 03:00 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Minutes after members of the Lok Sabha congratulated Om Birla for his re-election as the house's Speaker, the lower house of the Parliament witnessed a wave of protests and sloganeering by the treasury benches before getting adjourned for the day. The ruckus ensued after newly-elected Speaker Om Birla read out a resolution condemning the imposition of Emergency and termed the decision by then prime minister Indira Gandhi an attack on the Constitution.
Amid vociferous protests by opposition parties, Om Birla said, "This House strongly condemns the decision to impose Emergency in 1975. We appreciate the determination of all those people who opposed the Emergency, fought and fulfilled the responsibility of protecting India's democracy."
His reference to the emergency further led to a major face-off between the government and the opposition in effectively the first session of the Lok Sabha with Opposition MPs, including from the Congress, raising slogans against the reference. Even as the newly elected speaker was making his speech, the opposition parties continued sloganeering "Stop Dictatorship".
Meanwhile, the speaker also urged members to observe silence for a while and later adjourned the proceedings of the house for the day. "June 25, 1975 will always be known as a black chapter in the history of India. On this day, then prime minister Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in the country and attacked the Constitution made by Babasaheb Ambedkar," the speaker said.
Birla said India was known all over the world as the mother of democracy. "Democratic values and debate have always been supported in India. Democratic values have always been protected, they have always been encouraged. Indira Gandhi imposed dictatorship on such an India. The democratic values of India were crushed and freedom of expression was strangled," Birla added.
He said the rights of Indian citizens were crushed and their freedom snatched away. "Those were the times when opposition leaders were jailed, the entire nation was turned into a prison. The then dictatorial government had put several restrictions on the media and there was restraint on the autonomy of judiciary," Birla said.
NDA nominee Om Birla was elected as Lok Sabha speaker today after a motion moved by PM Modi was adopted through a voice vote, capping intense debate on the issue with the opposition in a rare move proposing its candidate. Pro-tem Speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab announced the opposition, which had forwarded the name of eight-term Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh as its candidate, did not press for votes to the motion.
With this, Birla, the BJP's MP from Kota, gets a second consecutive term in the chair, the fifth time that a speaker will serve beyond the tenure of one Lok Sabha. Balram Jakhar is the only presiding officer to have served two complete terms extending the seventh and eighth Lok Sabha.
Soon after, Modi and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju went to Birla's seat in the front row of the treasury benches to escort him to the chair. Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi also joined them. Gandhi greeted Birla and also shook hands with the prime minister.
(With Agencies Inputs)
