Newly-elected Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday read out a resolution describing the imposition of the Emergency in 1975 by the Congress government as a “black chapter” in India’s history, amid shouts of protest from the Opposition benches.

Congress leaders accused Birla of adopting a “confrontational” stance against the Opposition at the start of the 18th Lok Sabha’s first Parliament session.

Birla, reading out the resolution against the Emergency, said: “June 25, 1975 will always be known as a black chapter in the history of India. On this day, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed an Emergency in the country, thus attacking the Constitution framed by Babasaheb Ambedkar.”

The speaker said that the entire country was “turned into a prison” during the Emergency as the government had placed restrictions on the media and curbed the independence of the judiciary.

Birla later urged MPs to observe two minutes of silence to commemorate the “patriotic and dedicated citizens who lost their lives during the Emergency”. However, Congress MPs shouted slogans against the resolution.

The speaker then adjourned the proceedings for the day, after which Bharatiya Janata Party MPs shouted slogans outside Parliament demanding that the Congress apologise for the Emergency.

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Later in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was glad that Birla had “strongly condemned the Emergency” and “highlighted the excesses committed during that time”.

“The Emergency was imposed 50 years ago but it is important for today’s youth to know about it because it remains a fitting example of what happens when the Constitution is trampled over, public opinion is stifled and institutions are destroyed,” Modi said on social media. “The happenings during the Emergency exemplified what a dictatorship looks like.”

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that the Opposition had hoped that the speaker would conduct the House in a manner that would be fair to all parties, ANI reported.

“What we saw was the speaker, unfortunately, raising a matter that had not been discussed in the House and in a manner that came across as confrontational, which was not the right note on which to start the session,” he said.

Tharoor added: “The speaker could well have benefitted from actually allowing this kind of discussion to take place and then come up with a conclusion rather than imposing the conclusion on the House immediately.”

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