‘Emergency reference a travesty of Parliamentary traditions’: Congress to Birla

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”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla 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. 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. 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.