New Delhi: Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said the Lok Sabha poll verdict has signalled a "personal, political and moral defeat" for Prime Minister Narendra Modi but "he is continuing as if nothing has changed".
In an article in The Hindu, she claimed there is "not the slightest evidence that he (Modi) has come to terms with the electoral outcome or understand the verdict".
She said that when the prime minister's "emissaries sought unanimity for the post of Speaker", the opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc agreed to support the government.
"But in keeping with convention and tradition, it was only fair and to be expected that the post of deputy speaker would be given to a member from the ranks of the opposition," Gandhi said.
But this "perfectly reasonable request" was found unacceptable by the government, she said, adding the opposition alliance is committed to restoring balance and productivity in Parliament.
"On June 4, 2024, the verdict of our country's electorate was delivered clearly and resoundingly. It signalled a personal, political, and moral defeat for a prime minister who had awarded himself a divine status during the campaign," the Congress leader said.
"Yet, the prime minister continues as if nothing has changed. He preaches the value of consensus but continues to value confrontation," she said.
She also described the mention of Emergency by the prime minister, the Lok Sabha Speaker and BJP leaders as an attempt to divert attention from the "assault on the Constitution".
"It is a fact of history that in March 1977 the people of our country gave a categorical verdict on the Emergency, which was accepted unhesitatingly and unequivocally," Gandhi said.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on June 26 read out a resolution in the House condemning the imposition of Emergency in 1975 as an attack on the Constitution by then prime minister Indira Gandhi, triggering vociferous protests by the Congress.
Prime Minister Modi welcomed the Speaker's reference to Emergency in the Lok Sabha and said it was important for the youths as the period was a "fitting example of what happens when the Constitution is trampled over, public opinion is stifled and institutions are destroyed".
In the newspaper article on Saturday, Gandhi mentioned the passage of the three criminal laws and the suspension of 146 MPs from the two Houses of Parliament during the Winter Session and said the three legislations should be kept in abeyance till they have undergone full Parliamentary scrutiny.
Enacted last year, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam are set to replace the British-era Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act, respectively. The three new legislation will come into force from July 1.
About the ongoing controversy over medical entrance exam NEET, Gandhi said, "The prime minister, who does his 'Pariksha pe Charcha', has been conspicuously silent on the leaks that have devastated so many families across the country." Asserting that the opposition will continue to raise people's issues, she hoped that the prime minister and his government would respond positively.
"The initial evidence does not augur well, but we in the Opposition are committed to restoring balance and productivity in Parliament," she said.