BJP, Congress accuse each other of dishonouring Constitution's spirit

Rajnath says Congress always chose power over Constitution, draws counter from Priyanka Gandhi

The opening day of the two-day debate in the Lok Sabha held to mark 75 years of India’s Constitution saw leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress accusing each other of dishonouring the spirit of the document.

 

Initiating the “Discussion on the Glorious Journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India”, Union Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh said the Congress had always prioritised satta (power) over upholding the tenets of the Constitution. He claimed that allowing institutional autonomy had always been anathema to the Congress.

 

“These days, I see that many Opposition leaders keep the Constitution in their pockets. Actually, this is what they have learnt from childhood, they have seen their families keep the Constitution in their pockets for generations,” the minister said.

 

He accused the Congress of “hijacking and appropriating” the framing of the Constitution, refusing to acknowledge the contributions of several framers of the document, imposing the Emergency, dismissing state governments, and superseding Supreme Court judges for “standing up” to the then Indira Gandhi government.

 

“We must also remember those who were not part of the Constituent Assembly but whose ideas are part of it (Constitution). We must remember Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bhagat Singh, Veer Savarkar, and several other such icons whose ideas strengthened the Constitution," Singh said. He acknowledged India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s contribution to the framing of the Constitution, but also referred to the Nehru government’s amending the Constitution to override a Supreme Court judgment for “stifling”" freedom of expression. 

 

Delivering her maiden speech in the Lok Sabha after being elected in a bypoll from Kerala’s Wayanad, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said Prime Minister Modi has not understood that the Constitution is “Bharat ka Samvidhan”, not "Sangh (RSS) ka Vidhan”. Had it not been for the Lok Sabha poll results, the ruling party would have started changing the Constitution, she said.

 

In her 32-minute speech in Hindi, Priyanka Gandhi described the Constitution as a suraksha kavach (protective shield) of justice, unity, and freedom of expression and spoke of the BJP’s alleged attempts to change the Constitution, "growing monopoly" of the Adani Group, atrocities on women, incidents of violence in Sambhal and Manipur, and the demand for a nationwide caste Census.

 

She said the country has never stayed in the “hands of cowards for long”. The country will rise, fight, and demand justice, she said. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party chief, and her mother Sonia Gandhi, her husband Robert Vadra, and son Raihan were in the visitors’ gallery to listen to her speech.

 

Responding to Singh’s remarks on Nehru, she said: “What is your responsibility? Or does all the responsibility lie with Jawaharlal Nehru ji?” “His name can be erased from the books, but his role in the Independence struggle and nation building can never be erased from this country," the Congress general secretary said about her great grandfather.

 

In an apparent reference to billionaire Gautam Adani, she said: “All the business, all the resources, all the wealth, all the opportunities are being handed over to one person. The country's ports, airports, roads, railways, and government companies are being given to just one person. There was always faith in the minds of the people that if we have nothing, then the Constitution will protect us. But today, this perception is being formed among the common people that the government is working only for the profits of Adani," she said.

  Inequality, the Congress MP added, is increasing rapidly in the country with the poor becoming poorer and the rich richer. Addressing criticism of the Emergency, she said the BJP should learn from it and apologise for its mistakes. Priyanka Gandhi challenged the BJP to hold elections by using the ballot paper, saying it will expose the reality.

 

In his speech, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that efforts were being made to reduce minorities, particularly Muslims, to second-class citizens. He demanded the government provide figures on the per capita income of those below the poverty line and criticised it over alleged Chinese transgressions.

 

Later, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra's reference to the death of Judge B H Loya “long before his time” sparked an uproar in the Lok Sabha. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju accused her of raising a matter already settled by the Supreme Court and warned of “appropriate parliamentary action”. The House was briefly adjourned twice over the controversy, but the debate resumed after Speaker Om Birla said he had asked Moitra to authenticate her claims. He also assured Opposition members he would review their objections to Rijiju’s “threatening” remarks towards a woman MP.