BJP president JP Nadda reminded the Congress on Tuesday of the “dark days of Emergency” as he slammed the opposition for fielding K Suresh against the NDA’s Om Birla in the election for Lok Sabha speaker.
Addressing an event at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on the 49th anniversary of the Emergency, imposed by the Indira Gandhi government in 1975, Nadda accused the Congress and its allies of “hypocrisy and doublespeak” on the issue of the Lok Sabha speaker’s election and said there is no space for democracy in the “mindset” of the main opposition party.
Nadda asked if there had been any election for the Lok Sabha speaker where the opposition put a condition that the deputy speaker be decided first before reaching a consensus on the chair’s position.
Congress MP Suresh is the opposition’s candidate for the Lok Sabha chair against Birla of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which has a majority in the Lower House.
Nadda said the Congress, which was vying for the deputy speaker’s post in the name of tradition, itself did not follow the norm in states governed by it.