The opening day of the 18th Lok Sabha on Monday saw some fiery exchanges between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge over the 1975 Emergency and appeals for saving democracy.
The recently elected 262 MPs, including the Prime Minister, took their oaths in the opening session of the House amidst protest by opposition members within the Parliament complex. MPs from the INDIA bloc raised slogans of "saving democracy" and fluttered copies of the Constitution. The remaining MPs would take their oaths on Tuesday and the Speaker on Wednesday.
Modi said in his remarks before the session that people were yearning for an opposition that was responsible in its approach and his government would strive truly to be inclusive and consensus-driven. He berated the previous sessions that had seen many disruptions and asked for meaningful debates instead of slogan shouting.
The session began against the backdrop of issues concerning the NEET Medical Examination, the cancellation of the UGC-NET examination, recent terror attacks in Kashmir, a train accident in West Bengal, and the Tamil Nadu hooch tragedy. With these issues at the backdrop, along with those of unemployment, price rise, and economic inequality, the rejuvenated opposition is getting ready to corner the government on these fronts in this short session.
According to sources, while President Droupadi Murmu will address the joint sitting of both houses on June 27, discussion and passage of the motion of thanks to her address are scheduled the same day. The discussion would be replied to by Modi next week.
Modi lambasted the Congress over the 1975 Emergency in his speech, calling it a "black spot" on democracy when provisions of the Constitution were brushed aside. He said young citizens should learn from that when such decision jeopardized civil liberties, put behind bars opposition leaders, and censored the press.
He called upon the people to dedicate themselves to the cause of safeguarding democracy and nurturing democratic traditions so that such incidents do not recur. He further laid emphasis on fullfilling the aspirations of common people as envisaged in the Constitution.
He turned the table on Modi by accusing him of imposing "undeclared Emergency" in the last decade, nullified by the masses by denying BJP the majority. He quipped that despite this, Modi's customary address remained long and full of arrogance.
He appealed to Modi to take his advice seriously regarding substance over slogans and said that the opposition was committed to taking up people's issues, both inside and outside Parliament, and would fight for the Constitution. The same point was stressed by Rahul Gandhi, who said he would not allow Modi to "tamper with" the Constitution and would question him if he did.
Modi said tangibly that with a third-term election, the government's responsibility is tripled, and henceforth he will work thrice as hard and work towards results thrice as much. He focused on what the people want to see, which is that the opposition do their job in dignity and with efficiency, hoping that it is going to be so.
One BJP member, Bhartruhari Mahtab, was elected Protem Speaker and was sworn in by President Murmu as Protem Speaker. Congress's K Suresh took his oath later, after some initial delays, as he was the candidate for the post of Protem Speaker as per the Opposition.
The session was also marked by linguistic diversity with MPs taking oath in languages like Sanskrit, Hindi, Dogri, Bengali, Assamese and Odia. Modi took oath in Hindi to chants of "Jai Shri Ram" by his party members.
Amidst the opposition chanting over the NEET-NET controversy that has placed the government under moral scrutiny, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan took oath.
Opposition leaders, comprising Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Sudip Bandyopadhyay of the Trinamool Congress, and TR Baalu of the DMK, congregated for a protest at Mahatma Gandhi's statue in the Parliament complex. They took out copies of the Constitution and raised slogans about their determination to save it and democracy.
Rahul Gandhi said they were protesting against Modi's and Amit Shah's assaults on the Constitution, asserting that they would fight for the protection of the Constitution.
BJP leaders countered the "save Constitution" march by the opposition and asked it to focus on national progress post-elections. Former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai turned his guns toward the Congress over the 1975 Emergency, saying that it was guilty of compromising democracy and the Constitution.
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