The ongoing special session of Parliament commemorates India’s parliamentary journey of 75 years. The last such special session was in August 1997, when India celebrated 50 years of Independence. I K Gujral was the Prime Minister then, leading a government of the 13-party United Front.
On Independence eve that year, which fell during the Monsoon Session, a special sitting was organised at midnight. Programmes were conducted in the Central Hall of Parliament, with the late Lata Mangeshkar singing Sare Jahan Se Accha. A special guest for the programme was Betty Boothroyd, then the Speaker of
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These sittings set several records. A Parliament record of the session notes it was the first time that a special session of the House was convened to deliberate exclusively on a single motion introduced by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was then the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, on “the state of democracy and democratic institutions, economic situation, position of infrastructure, achievements and potential in the field of science and technology and the state of human development in the country”.The House spent 64 hours and 29 minutes discussing it.
While introducing the motion, Vajpayee spoke about “taking stock of the last 50 years”.
A chunk of his speech revolved around “the criminalisation of politics”. “Earlier criminals used to come to us for help, now they come to us to help us. We started taking their help to win elections and to capture polling booths. Now scientific rigging is taking place,” he said.
Vajpayee also touched upon increasing election expenses, asking: “Can we contest and win elections without black money? Perhaps only a few people will come under this category.”
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