Congress reminds VP-elect of impartiality, recalls Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's 1952 warning on democracy
A day after C.P. Radhakrishnan was elected as India’s new Vice President, the Congress on Wednesday extended its congratulations while urging him to uphold the values of fairness and impartiality.
The congress party cited the words of India’s first Vice President, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, delivered in the Rajya Sabha in 1952.
"I belong to no party, and that means I belong to every party in this House. It shall be my endeavour to uphold the traditions, the highest traditions, of parliamentary democracy and act towards each party with fairness and impartiality with ill-will to none and goodwill to all."
"A democracy is likely to degenerate into a tyranny if it does not allow the opposition groups to criticise fairly, freely, and frankly the policies of the Government,” Dr. Radhakrishnan had said on the opening day of the Rajya Sabha, May 16, 1952.
Quoting him, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh wrote on X, "Dr. Radhakrishnan practised what he preached, both in letter and spirit."
C.P. Radhakrishnan, the NDA nominee, won the vice presidential election with 452 votes, defeating the opposition’s joint candidate, Justice (retd) B. Sudershan Reddy, who secured 300 votes.
Despite the numbers, the Congress described the outcome as a "moral and political defeat" for the BJP.
The party praised the opposition’s unity and performance, highlighting that Sudershan Reddy garnered 40 per cent of the vote, a significant improvement from the 26 per cent opposition share in the 2022 vice presidential election.
(With inputs from PTI )