KC Venugopal, Congress general secretary, informed reporters that the meeting was just a polite visit. During this visit, Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition, also discussed with the Speaker the issue of the Emergency being declared in the House.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, met Speaker Om Birla on Thursday. He expressed his displeasure over the chair's reference to the Emergency, calling it "clearly political" and avoidable. During this courtesy call, Gandhi raised his concerns about the Speaker's mention of the Emergency in the House, Congress general secretary K C Venugopal told reporters after the Parliament House meeting.
"It was a courtesy call," he said. "The Speaker declared Rahul Gandhi as the Leader of the Opposition. After that, he and other INDIA bloc leaders met the Speaker."
When asked if Gandhi discussed the Emergency issue raised in the House, Venugopal replied, "We discussed many aspects of Parliament functioning. This issue also came up, of course."
"Rahul ji, as Leader of Opposition, told the Speaker that the reference to the Emergency could have been avoided. It was clearly political," the Congress leader said.
Separately, Venugopal wrote to Birla, expressing the party's displeasure that his first task was bringing up the resolution on the Emergency.
"I am writing about a very serious matter affecting the credibility of Parliament. Yesterday, June 26, 2024, during the felicitations for your election as Speaker, there was a general camaraderie in the House," he wrote in his letter to the Speaker.
"However, after your acceptance speech, the Chair's reference to the Emergency from half a century ago was deeply shocking. Such a political reference is unprecedented in Parliament's history. This, as one of the 'first duties' of a newly elected Speaker, is even more concerning.
"On behalf of the Indian National Congress, I express our deep concern and distress over this breach of Parliamentary traditions," Venugopal wrote to the Speaker.
Soon after his election as Lok Sabha Speaker, Birla ignited controversy on Wednesday by reading a resolution condemning the imposition of Emergency as an attack on the Constitution by then-prime minister Indira Gandhi, prompting loud protests from Congress members in the House.
Birla noted that on June 26, 1975, India faced the harsh realities of an Emergency when opposition leaders were jailed, the media faced restrictions, and judicial autonomy was curtailed under the Congress government.
Rahul Gandhi's meeting with the Speaker marked his first as Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. He was joined by Samajwadi Party's Dharmendra Yadav and Dimple Yadav, DMK's Kanimozhi, NCP's Supriya Sule, RJD's Misa Bharti, TMC's Kalyan Banerjee, RSP's N K Premachandran, and others.
