New Delhi: The bonhomie and the handshakes at the appointment of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday were short-lived. In his first speech after taking over as the Speaker of the 18th Lok Sabha, Om Birla on Wednesday condemned the decision to impose the Emergency in 1975 and observed a two-minute silence in the memory of the citizens who lost their lives during the period, triggering vociferous protests and sloganeering from the opposition.
Om Birla said the democratic values of India were crushed and freedom of expression was strangled during the “dark period” of the Emergency.
“The Emergency had destroyed the lives of so many citizens of India, so many people had died. We observe two minutes of silence in the memory of such dutiful and patriotic citizens of India who lost their lives at the hands of the dictatorial government of Congress during that dark period of the Emergency,” Birla said.
This sparked an uproar from the Opposition benches and the House was adjourned.
Notably, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Emergency.
INDIA bloc MPs raised slogans like ‘tanashahi bandh karo’ (stop the dictatorship) and ‘desh ko jail bana diya hai’ (they’ve turned the country into a jail).
On the Speaker’s Emergency remark, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said it is “unfortunate” that the Speaker ended up undermining the spirit of consensus by a “divisive” statement. “This was not necessary. It was 49 years ago. If you have to go to such lengths on a day on which the message was to be one of cooperation and consensus, that’s unfortunate,” he said.
However, Birla’s speech earned praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Taking to X, the PM wrote, “I am glad that the Honourable Speaker strongly condemned the Emergency, highlighted the excesses committed during that time and also mentioned the manner in which democracy was strangled. It was also a wonderful gesture to stand in silence in honour of all those who suffered during those days. ”
PM Modi stressed that the Emergency was imposed 50 years ago but it was important for today’s youth to know about it because it remained a fitting example of what happens when the Constitution is trampled over, public opinion is stifled and institutions are destroyed. “The happenings during the Emergency exemplified what a dictatorship looks like,” he wrote on X.
