STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused the Congress of repeatedly mutilating the Constitution, having “tasted blood” in its “greed” for power, as he asserted that his government’s policies and decisions since 2014 have been aimed at boosting India’s strength and unity in line with the vision of the Constitution.
Replying to a two-day discussion in the Lok Sabha on “The glorious journey of 75 years of the Constitution of India”, he claimed that destroying the spirit of the Constitution is in the veins of the Congress, while his government holds its sacredness and integrity paramount.
With the opposition INDIA bloc running a campaign against his government for its alleged bid to weaken and change the Constitution, Modi put up a stout defence of his commitment to the country’s founding document.
He said leaders like him and many others coming from ordinary families could never have reached where they did but for the strength of the Constitution, as he underlined his long adherence to its values.
“Our Constitution is the basis of our unity,” he said, emphasising that unity is the biggest requirement to achieve the goal of India becoming a developed country by 2047.
He wrapped up his over 110-minute speech proposing 11 resolutions aimed at shaping India’s future, including upholding existing reservations for marginalised sections and ruling out any religion-based quota.
He said the Constituent Assembly had taken a considered decision against religion-based reservation, but the Congress has been pushing for it to appease its vote bank, an apparent reference to Muslims. The 11 resolutions included a call for ending dynastic politics, promoting meritocracy over nepotism in governance and a pledge of zero tolerance to corruption.
Modi was searing in his criticism of the Congress, especially the Nehru-Gandhi family, alleging that its members repeatedly struck blows to the Constitution by amending it to cling to power and to appease their vote bank.
Enjoyment of power and greed for it is the history and present of the Congress. The next generation of the Nehru-Gandhi family is also in the same game after former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi amended the Constitution in their “greed” for power, he said in his over 110-minute address.
Unlike them, he said, his government amended the Constitution to further its spirit to empower the backward and disadvantaged sections of society, and to further the country’s unity and integrity.
Besides numerous welfare measures of his government, he cited the introduction of the GST and reservation for the economically weaker section, and the repeal of Article 370 to make his point.
In a swipe at the past Congress governments, he accused them of planting “poisonous” seeds in the country’s diversity to accentuate its contradictions and damage its unity.
He counted Nehru’s amendment of the Constitution to put restrictions on the freedom of speech, Indira Gandhi’s imposition of Emergency to keep her hold of power to negate a Supreme Court order annulling her election as MP, and Rajiv Gandhi’s amendment to overturn the court’s judgment in the Shah Bano case among numerous instances of the family’s alleged power grab.
Nehru had written to chief ministers that if the Constitution comes in their way, it should be amended, Modi said.
Targeting Leader of Opposition in the House Rahul Gandhi, Modi said an “arrogant” person tore a Cabinet decision of the Congress-led UPA government and his mother Sonia Gandhi headed the National Advisory Council that was put “above” the prime minister’s office at that time. The prime minister though did not take their names.
The family left no stone unturned to strike blows to the Constitution. “This family challenged the Constitution at every level,” he said, adding that he was singling out the family as its members were in power for 55 years.
As chief minister of Gujarat, he said, his government celebrated the 60th year of the Constitution’s adoption by placing a copy of the document on an elephant while he walked underneath barefoot in a symbolic gesture to highlight its supremacy.
Indira Gandhi as prime minister “throttled India’s democracy and mutilated the Constitution” when the 25th year of its adoption was approaching, to save her chair as prime minister, he said, noting that she also effected an amendment to protect the president, vice president and herself from any legal challenge to their position with a retrospective effect.
The country was turned into jail and the judiciary was stifled. This sin of the Congress can never be washed off, Modi asserted.
While the makers of the Constitution took a considered decision to disallow reservation on the basis of religion and faith in the interest of the country’s unity and integrity, the Congress in its “greed for power” and to “appease its vote bank” pushed for it in violation of the constitutional spirit, he said.
He cited his government’s decisions like granting constitutional status to the OBC commission, giving health coverage to the poor, boosting infrastructure in remote parts of the country, providing free ration to the poor and pushing for saturation coverage of welfare schemes without any discrimination to highlight its works in line with the spirit of the Constitution.
The saturation coverage in welfare schemes is true secularism and true social justice, he said.
Modi hailed India’s journey since the adoption of the Constitution in 1949 as “extraordinary”, asserting that the country’s ancient democratic roots have long been an inspiration for the world.
India is not only a big democracy but it is now acknowledged as the mother of democracy, he said.
Modi said India defied all apprehensions about its democratic future after independence and added that its Constitution has brought the country to this stage.
He paid tributes to the makers of the Constitution and the country’s citizens for living up to the spirit of its makers.
Those involved in the making of the Constitution were well aware that India was not born in 1947 or turned democratic in 1950, he said, citing remarks of eminent personalities like Purushottam Das Tandon and Bhim Rao Ambedkar.
Women were given voting rights by the Constitution, Modi said, adding the country is now seeing women-led development.
He lauded the parliamentarians for the unanimous passage of the law to give reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.