New Delhi: The BJP attacked the Congress on Thursday for objecting to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s condemnation of the Emergency, claiming that this shows the opposition party’s intentions are not right and its invocation of the Constitution is merely a smokescreen.
BJP leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress begins squirming at the mention of the Emergency, which was imposed by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1975.
Referring to the Emergency as “the sin of the murder of democracy”, he asked, “Why should not this black chapter in the Indian democracy be discussed.”
He noted that the Congress never apologised for imposing the Emergency.
Prasad’s remarks to the media came after Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi met Birla and voiced his displeasure over his critical statement on Wednesday in the House on the Emergency. Gandhi claimed it was “clearly political” and could have been avoided.
Later, Congress leader K C Venugopal also wrote to Birla, expressing the party’s displeasure over his statement on the Emergency as his first task after assuming office.
Defending Birla’s stand, Prasad said it is necessary to tell the country why it was imposed.
President Droupadi Murmu also condemned the Emergency in her address to a joint sitting of Parliament on Thursday.
The Congress continues to carry this sin and begins squirming at its very mention, the BJP leader said, noting that the opposition leaders were arrested, RSS activists were tortured, thousands of people were forced to undergo vasectomy and media was put under censorship among the Emergency’s numerous accesses.
Taking a swipe at the Congress’s current allies like Akhilesh Yadav, M K Stalin and Tejashwi Yadav, he said they should remember the excesses of the Emergency.
While the DMK government in Tamil Nadu was dismissed, Tajashwi Yadav’s father and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was arrested.
Akhilesh’s father Mulayam Singh Yadav was also imprisoned.
Congress leaders are carrying copies of the Constitution and it is clearly a smokescreen, he claimed.
It is a matter of pride that the country defeated the forces behind the Emergency, he said.
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