The fourth edition of Lokmat Parliamentary Awards 2022 is currently underway in New Delhi Along with this, Lokmat National Conclave has also been organized. Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Puri was present on the occasion. During this, the Union Minister highlighted the shortcomings of the Congress rule while counting the achievements of the government. He said that India is the oldest country in the form of a democratic country and here everyone from the general public to the media has the freedom to present their stand. In fact, Hardeep Puri, while replying to the Congress's continuous allegations of murder of democracy on the Modi government, said, "When Emergency was declared in the whole country in the year 1975, it was actually the murder of democracy."
Referring to the statement made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in London, Hardeep Puri said that his own grandmother had imposed emergency in the country but today he is accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. His grandmother imposed Section 356 many times in the country but ever since the Modi government came, Section 356 was never imposed in the country because our Prime Minister and the BJP government believe in democracy. Section 356 was never imposed in the country after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in the year 2014. Our government runs constitutionally Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the only PM who fully believes in democracy and supports the country to be fully democratic. The Lokmat Parliamentary Awards are given to outstanding Parliamentarians — four each from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha — for their contribution in eight different categories. The awards were conceived in 2017 to recognise and encourage positive work done by parliamentarians every year and were conferred during 2017-2019 to winners by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.The awardees are selected by a distinguished jury headed by NCP president Sharad Pawar. Past winners include former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sharad Pawar, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Yadav, Sitaram Yechury, Jaya Bachchan, Supriya Sule, Nishikant Dubey, Hema Malini, Bharti Pawar, Sushmita Dev, Meenakshi Lekhi and Rajni Patil.