Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday tore into the Gandhi family for repeatedly amending the Constitution after they “tasted blood” and murdering the statute’s spirit for personal interest, vote bank politics and display of arrogance.
Speaking on the second day of debate on 75 years of the Constitution’s adoption, PM Modi lashed out at the Congress for getting into the habit of the amendment of the Constitution, a phenomenon that started with first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and continued with former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi, and Rajiv Gandhi.
“Once they tasted blood, they wanted to do it again and again,” he said, referring to the imposition of Emergency and blunting of the Supreme Court’s 1985 verdict in the Shah Bano case.
“The Constitution was amended 75 times in 55 years, the seed sown by the First PM was nurtured by PM Indira Gandhi and subsequent family members,” he said, adding that these people have opposed reservation repeatedly and worked against Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s dream of reservation, including the implementation of the Mandal Commission report.
As the Congress members stood up to object during PM Modi’s attack on the Gandhi family, the PM repeatedly reminded that he was only stating facts about incidents of disrespect for the Constitution.
He also recounted his government’s constitutional amendments aimed at giving constitutional status to the OBC Commission, women’s reservation, demolishing the wall of Article 370, quota for the poor among general category people and many other initiatives for giving a dignified life to citizens.
“To negate a verdict of the Supreme Court in 1971, the Constitution was amended. The provision for judicial scrutiny of Parliament’s right to amend the Constitution, including Fundamental Rights, was taken away by PM Indira Gandhi,” he said during his speech lasting one hour and 46 minutes.
Recalling the Emergency, PM Modi said former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi murdered democracy and disrespected the Constitution by bringing the 39th amendment to the Constitution and denied rights to people and muzzled the judiciary and media.
The 39th Amendment of the Constitution of India, enacted on August 10, 1975, placed the election of the President, the Vice President, the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha beyond the scrutiny of the Indian courts, he said.
The idea of a “Committed Judiciary” was nurtured by her, PM Modi said, adding that Justice H.R. Khanna who gave a dissenting judgment over the imposition of Emergency was prevented from becoming the Chief Justice of India.
Innocent people were jailed, atrocities were committed against citizens and all this was happening because the bad habit of amending the Constitution had gone into the blood of the Gandhi family, he said.
Citing the Shah Bano verdict by the Supreme Court of 1985 to give alimony to helpless Muslim widows, he said former PM Rajiv Gandhi amended the Constitution to undo the verdict with a view to vote-bank politics and pleasing fundamentalists.
PM Modi said the next generation of PM Rajiv Gandhi is also indulging in this practice of disrespecting and tinkering with the Constitution.
Reading excerpts from a book by former PM Manmohan Singh, he said the government under Manmohan Singh was answerable to the party and the party chief had emerged as a power centre.
“This was for the first time that the Constitution had inflicted such serious blows that an unconstitutional authority ‘National Advisory Council’ was placed above the democratically elected Prime Minister,” said PM Modi, amid shouts of “shame”.
In a veiled reference to Rahul Gandhi’s 2013 act of tearing a document related to a Union Cabinet’s ordinance to save convicted legislators from disqualification, PM Modi said an arrogant person tore the document and forced the Cabinet to change its decision.
The current generation of the Gandhi family is taking forward the legacy of attacking the Constitution after tasting blood long back, he said.
Earlier, he said, “The Congress did not follow its own Constitution, and made Nehru the leader when state units had supported Sardar Patel.”
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