‘Clearly political’: Congress miffed with Speaker Om Birla over Emergency reference

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi met Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday to voice his displeasure over the mention of the Emergency. He said that the reference to the Emergency period was “clearly political”. 

Congress general secretary K C Venugopal told the media after the meeting in the Parliament House that Gandhi, along with other INDIA bloc partner leaders met the Speaker in a courtesy call. 

Referring to the issue of Emergency being raised in the House, Venugopal said that they discussed many things about the Parliament functioning, along with the Emergency issue.

Rahul Gandhi “informed the Speaker about this issue and said it could have been avoided from the Speaker's reference”, said Venugopal. “That is clearly a political reference, it could have been avoided," the Congress leader said.

Venugopal also wrote to Birla to express the party's displeasure as the Speaker brought up the Emergency on his first day after assuming office for the second term.

"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," stated the letter. He said that the reference to the Emergency that took place half a century ago was “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,” the letter added.

Birla on Wednesday kicked off a storm by condemning the imposition of Emergency as an attack on the Constitution by then prime minister Indira Gandhi. 

Rahul Gandhi's meeting with the Speaker was the first after he assumed charge as the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. He was accompanied by Samajwadi Party's Dharmendra Yadav and Dimple Yadav, DMK's Kanimozhi, NCP's (SP) Supriya Sule, RJDs Misa Bharti and TMC's Kalyan Banerjee, RSP's N K Premachandran and some others.