Cong attacks Modi, claims special Parl session planned to mark 50 years of Emergency

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the government has ignored calls for convening the House to discuss India’s cross-border strikes in retaliation for the 22 Pahalgam terror attack

The Congress on Thursday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an “undeclared Emergency” and refusing to answer questions related to the Pahalgam terrorist attack, as it claimed the government is planning a special Parliament session to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1975-1977 Emergency.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said they have been asking Modi to chair an all-party meeting on the Pahalgam attack. (X)

In a post on X, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the government has ignored calls for convening the House to discuss India’s cross-border strikes in retaliation for the 22 Pahalgam terror attack.

The government last year announced that the anniversary of the imposition of the Emergency (June 25) will be annually marked as Samvidhan Hatya Divas (Constitution Murder Day). Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Congress government imposed the Emergency in 1975, suspending civil rights and elections. Opposition leaders were arrested before she withdrew the Emergency two years later and ordered elections in 1977, in which the Congress was routed.

Ramesh said the Congress has been asking Modi since April 22 to chair an all-party meeting on the Pahalgam attack and its fallout. “That has yet to take place. On May 10th, both the LoP [Leader of Opposition] in the Lok Sabha [Rahul Gandhi] and the LoP in the Rajya Sabha [Mallikarjun Kharge] wrote to the PM [Prime Minister] requesting for a special session of Parliament to be convened and to demonstrate the nation’s collective resolve through a resolution. The PM has NOT accepted that suggestion as well,” he wrote.

“Now it appears that a special session of Parliament is being considered for June 25-26 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Emergency.”

Ramesh said the session will be Modi’s “another classic exercise in diversion and distraction from real and more urgent issues”. The Congress leader accused Modi of placing the nation under an “undeclared Emergency” for 11 years and refusing to answer why the Pahalgam terrorists are still absconding, why he allowed President Trump to broker a ceasefire, and why he gave a “clean chit” to China publicly on June 19th, 2020, when he said no one entered Indian territory, and no posts were taken in Ladakh.

The strikes in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack sparked a series of attacks and counterattacks. The military hostilities ended on May 10 as New Delhi and Islamabad reached an understanding after a four-day fight.

On Wednesday, West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress also backed the calls for a special session to discuss the Pahalgam attack.