As BJP drags them into Emergency spotlight, INDIA allies say matter ‘past’, no need for Cong apology
KICKING OFF proceedings in the new Parliament with a multi-pronged attack on the Congress over the Emergency, the BJP has said that even its own allies are not on the same page on the issue.
Addressing a press conference after Speaker Om Birla read out a resolution against the Emergency, in his first speech in Parliament after re-election to the post, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said that while Congress members had rushed to the Well of the House in protest, MPs of the Samajwadi Party, DMK and Trinamool Congress had stayed in their seats, and noted that the SP’s Mulayam Singh Yadav, the RJD’s Lalu Prasad, and the DMK’s M Karunanidhi, T R Baalu and M K Stalin had all been put in jail during the Emergency.
Asked about the BJP trying to find common cause with them over the Emergency, leaders of the INDIA bloc parties said the invoking of the provision by the Indira Gandhi government in 1975 was a thing of the past, and that they did not agree with the BJP demand that the Congress needed to “apologise” over the same.
While he admitted that he did not join the Congress protest over Birla’s remarks in the House, Samajwadi Party Ballia MP Sanatan Pandey said he did not think the Congress will apologise, or that it should. “We should compare the situation at that time with the one prevailing currently… Plus, the Emergency dates back from 1975 to 1977. The raising of such issues by the BJP after so many years, in the 18th Lok Sabha, is in no way in the interest of democracy. It only weakens democracy,” Pandey said.
The SP MP added that such a move by the BJP government was proof that it had “no vision”, and wanted to avoid discussions on important issues such as unemployment. “If the BJP is really so pained about the Emergency, the government should give those who fought against it due honour.”
RJD Aurangabad MP Abhay Kunar Sinha said his party had supported the Congress’s protest in the House against the Speaker’s remarks on the Emergency, and added that the BJP was raising the issue only to divert attention from burning issues such as the controversy over the NEET exam.
The Opposition wants a debate on NEET but the government is trying to divert the issue to cover up its “failures”, Sinha said.
On the BJP’s demand that the Congress apologise for the Emergency, Sinha said: “Before seeking an apology from the Congress, the BJP should tender an apology for imposing an undeclared emergency via the Enforcement Directorate and CBI. Prime Minister Narendra Modi should apologise for the decision of demonetization, as a result of which several people died standing in queues.”
The DMK said the Congress had already expressed its regrets over the excesses of the Emergency enough times, and need not apologise further. "Has anybody in the Congress justified the Emergency? No. How many times will this be brought up to divert the attention of people from the raging issues that are affecting the country?" DMK MP Kalanidhi Veeraswamy told The Indian Express.
The CPI, whose leaders also fought against the Emergency, said that as far as it was concerned, the issue was "over". "Why is the BJP digging up the past and bringing up the Emergency at this time? We want to know their response to the misgovernance we are witnessing now, especially when it comes to NEET. Modi is the Prime Minister today. Why is he not ready to answer questions of the present?" CPI general secretary D Raja said.
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