NEW DELHI, March 10: The Congress on Sunday accused the BJP and the RSS of having a “hidden and devious” agenda of “re-writing and destroying” the Constitution after the ruling party’s MP Anantkumar Hegde remarked that his party needs a two-third majority to amend the Constitution.
Addressing a gathering at Karwar in Karnataka, Hegde said the BJP needs a two-third majority in both houses of Parliament to amend the Constitution and “set right the distortions and unnecessary additions made to it by the Congress”.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the BJP MP’s remark was a public declaration of the “hidden intentions” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and their “Sangh Parivar”.
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,” he said in a post on X.
“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”.
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,” he alleged in a post in Hindi on X.
“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’.
Hegde’s views personal: BJP
The BJP on Sunday moved to defuse the row sparked by its MP Anantkumar Hegde’s support for amending the Constitution as it dubbed his remarks “personal opinion” and sought clarification from him.
With the opposition targeting the ruling party over the Karnataka MP’s comments, its spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said the BJP has always acted in line with constitutional ethos and national interest.
In a post on X, the Karnataka unit of the BJP said, “MP Ananthkumar Hegde’s remarks on the Constitution are his personal views and do not reflect the party’s stance. BJP reaffirms our unwavering commitment to uphold the nation’s Constitution and will ask for an explanation from Hegde regarding his comments.”
The Congress accused the BJP and the RSS of having a “hidden and devious” agenda of “re-writing and destroying” the Constitution after Hegde remarked that his party needs a two-third majority to amend the Constitution. (PTI)
