Anantkumar Hegde told a public gathering in Karwar, Karnataka that the BJP will change the country’s “distorted” Constitution, make it favourable towards Hindus, and “set right the distortions and unnecessary additions made to it by the Congress”, if they get a two-thirds majority in the the Lok Sabha.
Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Karnataka BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde’s remarks on amending the Constitution Sunday triggered a political firestorm with the opposition Congress alleging that the BJP, RSS, and the “Sangh Parivar” has a “hidden and devious” agenda of “re-writing and destroying” the Constitution.
Earlier today, Anantkumar Hegde told a public gathering in Karwar, Karnataka that the BJP will change the country’s “distorted” Constitution, make it favourable towards Hindus, and “set right the distortions and unnecessary additions made to it by the Congress”, if they get a two-thirds majority in the the Lok Sabha.
‘Devious agenda’
Reacting sharply to Hegde’s comments, Congress gave the slogan of “Samvidhan Bachao BJP Hatao (Remove BJP, Save Constitution), while accusing the ruling party of fostering a “devious hidden agenda” to rewrite India’s Constitution.
Congress scion Rahul Gandhi dubbed the BJP MP’s remark as a public declaration of the “hidden intentions” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and their “Sangh Parivar”, whole party chief Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that Hegde’s statement “yet again exposes Modi-RSS’ devious agenda to impose dictatorship”.
“The Modi government, BJP and RSS secretly desire to impose a dictatorship, whereby they will impose their ‘Manuvaadi mindset’ on the people of India and snatch away the rights of SCs, STs and OBCs,” Kharge said in a post on X.
‘BJP wants to impose dictatorship’
Kharge alleged that BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, wants to do away with elections and impose a dictatorship in the country.
“There will be NO Elections, or at the most, just sham elections. Independence of institutions shall be curtailed. Freedom of expression shall be bulldozed. The RSS and the BJP will destroy our secular fabric and unity in diversity,” Kharge alleged and asserted that the Congress would not allow these “ulterior motives” of the ‘Sangh Parivar’ to succeed.
He alleged that such repeated calls by the BJP-RSS, from time to time were a “direct assault” on the “unquestionable ethos of sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic espoused by our Constitution makers”.
“Justice, Equality, and Liberty are the strong pillars of the Constitution and any change in these principles would be an insult to the India envisioned by Babasaheb Dr Ambedkar and our revered founders,” the Congress chief said.
“It is the solemn responsibility of every Indian to protect our democracy and the Constitution,” he said on X using the hashtag “Samvidhan Bachao BJP Hatao”.
‘Samvidhan Bachao BJP Hatao’
Rahul Gandhi alleged that the “ultimate goal of Narendra Modi and the BJP is to destroy Baba Saheb’s Constitution.”
“They hate justice, equality, civil rights and democracy. By dividing the society, enslaving the media, trammelling the right to freedom of expression and crippling independent institutions, they want to turn India’s great democracy into a narrow dictatorship by conspiring to eliminate the opposition,” Gandhi alleged in a post in Hindi on X.
The former Congress chief said they would not let these “conspiracies” with the dreams of the heroes of India’s struggle for Independence succeed and would continue to fight for the democratic rights guaranteed by the Constitution till the last breath.
“Every soldier of the Constitution, especially Dalits, tribals, backward and minorities, wake up, raise your voice – INDIA is with you,” he also said using the hashtag ‘Samvidhan Bachao BJP Hatao’.
‘400 paar’ rhetoric step towards BJP’s ultimate goal: Ramesh
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the BJP MP, a former Union Minister, and “Modi’s favourite” Anantkumar Hegde has only revealed what was already known. “The goal of the BJP and RSS is to overturn Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution,” he alleged.
“All the prime minister’s rhetoric about crossing 400 seats is geared towards the goal of dismantling the Constitution — the last protector of the rights of India’s people, especially of Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, and religious minorities,” he said.
“If we have to save Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution and preserve Indian democracy, we must vote the Modi Sarkar out,” Ramesh said in a post on X.
BJP needs majority to correct ‘distorted’ Constitution
Former Union Minister and BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde, who has been a vocal proponent of removing the word “secular” from the Preamble and other “unnecessary additions” from the Constitution, Sunday said the saffron party would need a two-thirds majority in both houses of Parliament to amend the Constitution and “set right distortions and unnecessary additions made to it by the Congress”.
Hegde urged his supporters to ensure that the BJP gets the required majority in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as he went on to explain the numbers required to amend the preamble of the Constitution.
He said that for this to happen, the BJP must also come to power in more that 20 States.
“If the Constitution has to be amended — the Congress fundamentally distorted the Constitution by forcefully filling unnecessary things in it, especially by bringing in laws that were aimed at suppressing the Hindu society — if all of this has to be changed it is not possible with this (current) majority,” the six-time Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka said.
“If we think it can be done as Congress is not there in Lok Sabha and (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi has two-thirds majority in Lok Sabha, and keep quiet, it is not possible,” he said, as he stressed on the BJP’s need to have two-thirds majority in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and also win two-thirds of the States, to bring changes in the Constitution.
BJP is ‘anti-Constitution’: Shivakumar
Reacting to Hegde’s statement, Karnataka deputy chief minister and state Congress chief D K Shivakumar said this showed that the BJP was “anti-Constitution”.
“Let him do it, amend the Constitution… this shows that the BJP government (at the Centre) and the BJP MP are against the Constitution given by Babasaheb Ambedkar. Let him get it stamped by the prime minister,” he told reporters.
(With PTI inputs)
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