Venkaiah Naidu hits back at Sonia Gandhi over 'Black Day for democracy' remark

NEW DELHI: Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today hit back at Congress President Sonia Gandhi over her 'Black Day for democracy' remarks and reminded her of the Emergency during Indira Gandhi's Prime Ministership.

"What is Black Day is when democracy was murdered and people were put behind bars including Jayaprakash Narayan, Morarji Desai, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani and all of us, censorship was imposed on the Press, when Opposition were put behind bars and Parliament was convened and Constitutional amendments were made," Naidu told India Today.

Earlier in the day, Gandhi dubbed the suspension of 25 party MPs as "a Black Day for India and Democracy". Soon after Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's decision to suspend 25 Congress MPs, Gandhi, who appeared agitated, said it is "a Black Day for India and Democracy".

"Like in Gujarat the opposition members used to get suspended, similar thing is happening here. It is the Gujarat model which is being implemented," leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters.