'Clearly Political': Rahul Gandhi Meets Speaker Om Birla, Says Emergency Reference Could've Been Avoided

Congress MPs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi arrive to attend the President's address to the joint sitting of Parliament, in New Delhi on June 27. (Image: PTI/Shahbaz Khan)

Soon after Congress MP Rahul Gandhi became the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, he met Speaker Om Birla on Thursday and voiced his displeasure over the reference to the 1975 Emergency made by the chair. He said it was “clearly political” and could have been avoided.

Gandhi called on Birla in his chambers in their first meeting after the Congress leader assumed charge as the leader of the opposition. He was accompanied by the Samajwadi Party’s Dharmendra Yadav and Dimple Yadav, DMK’s Kanimozhi, NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule, RJD’s Misa Bharti and TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee, RSP’s NK Premachandran among others.

Congress general secretary KC Venugopal told reporters after the meeting that it was simply a courtesy call during which Gandhi also raised the issue of Emergency being invoked by the Speaker in the House. “It was a courtesy call. The Speaker declared Rahul Gandhi as the Leader of Opposition and after that, he along with other INDIA bloc partner leaders met the Speaker,” he said.

This comes after Venugopal also wrote to Birla, expressing the party’s displeasure over the bringing of the resolution on the Emergency as his first task after assuming office. “We discussed so many things about Parliament functioning. Of course, this issue (resolution on Emergency) also came up. Rahul ji, as Leader of Opposition, informed the Speaker about this issue and said it could have been avoided from the Speaker’s reference. That is clearly a political reference, it could have been avoided,” the Congress leader said.

In his letter to the Speaker, Venugopal said his reference to the Emergency “half a century ago” was “deeply shocking” and making such a political reference from the Chair is “unprecedented in the annals of the history of Parliament”.

“I am writing this in the context of a very grave matter impacting the very credibility of the institution of Parliament. Yesterday, that is 26 June 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,” he said in his letter.

He added: “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. Making 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 Indian National Congress, express our profound concern and anguish over this travesty of Parliamentary traditions.”

Soon after his election as Lok Sabha Speaker, Birla on Wednesday (June 26) set off a firestorm by reading out a resolution condemning the imposition of Emergency as an attack on the Constitution by then prime minister Indira Gandhi, an act that triggered vociferous protests by the Congress.

Birla said it was on June 26, 1975, that the country woke up to the cruel realities of the Emergency when the Congress government jailed opposition leaders, imposed many restrictions on the media and also curbed the autonomy of the judiciary.

(With PTI inputs)