During the last fifteen years or so, the level and quality of the Parliamentary debates in India have constantly deteriorated and every other day new paradigms of the noisy scenes and unruly conduct by members are established, particularly by those belonging to the oldest political party of India. The second stint of the Congress led UPA government with Manmohan Singh as prime minister was marred with several high value scams and scandals as also many vital issues impacting the nation, then constantly raised by the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) led opposition in the Parliament. In reaction and revenge perhaps, the UPA constituents, mainly the chief opposition Congress Party, indulged in frequent disruptions so often without any valid reasons or ground during the 16th Lok Sabha (2014-19) and 17th Lok Sabha (2019-24) leading to a significant loss of time for the crucial parliamentary functioning and the legislative business. By and large, the same trend has continued after the recently held parliamentary elections and constitution of the 18th Lok Sabha in June 2024.
The last two stints of Prime Minister Narendra Modi led NDA government at the Centre from 2014 to 2024 have been free of any scams and scandals, thereby not giving enough reasons and excuses to the opposition parties to exploit. But now the Congress led INDI Alliance have come out with a potentially harmful narrative that if the Modi government is allowed to stay in power, they will change and destroy the Constitution to the disadvantage of the minorities (mainly Muslims), Dalits (SCs), Indian women and tribals of the country. As such the de facto leaders of the Congress, Raebareli MP Rahul Gandhi and sister Priyanka Vadra constantly blame Mr Modi and his government working only for the benefits of a few Indian conglomerates such as Adani and Ambani Groups. During the recent winter session of the Parliament, after continuously disrupting the Parliamentary legislative business on various pretexts, the Congress led opposition pressed for a debate in both the houses on Constitution in December 2024, running its 75th year of operation. The two-days debate occurred in both the houses but at the end it backfired on the opposition itself giving a freehand to the ruling BJP leaders and their allies to attack the Congress and Nehru-Gandhi family for fiddling with the spirit of Constitution on several occasions in the past.
The Parliamentary Debate
The opposition INDI Alliance spearheaded by the leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi in the Lok Sabha and Mallikarjun Kharge in Rajya Sabha, among others, spoke against the programmes and policies of the ruling NDA government (mainly BJP) alleging that the latter is bent upon in destroying the Constitution and insulting late BR Ambedkar, who is widely recognized as the maker of the Constitution. Reply to the opposition averments and allegations was given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself in the Lok Sabha and Home Minister Amit Shah in the Rajya Sabha. What was expected to be a healthy and well-meaning debate on a vital subject by the mature and well-meaning parliamentarians actually turned out to be a conflict-ridden diatribe between the ruling and opposition alliances. Although several leaders and MPs of different political parties spoke against or in favour of the ruling dispensation; however, for the sake of brevity, salient points made by Congress leader and prime minister in their speeches in briefly summarized here.
During his over an hour’s speech, Rahul Gandhi said that the BJP have attacked the Constitution 24X7, and to illustrate his point, he took habitual dig at the Hindu Dharma Shastra Manu Smriti and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar aka Veer Savarkar, a freedom fighter, reformer and writer. While the BJP as a nationalist political party and many patriotic Indians adore Veer Savarkar, the Gandhi scion said that Savarkar was of opinion that there is nothing Indian about our Constitution and that Manu Smriti was most worshipable after the Vedas in the Hindu nation. The obvious meaning of his gibe was that in the context of the Indian culture, customs, thoughts and practices, the BJP only believe in Manu Smriti as law with no regard for the Constitution of the modern India. Flashing the copy of the Indian Constitution, he said that the Constitution de facto reflects the voices and ideas of Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.
The Gandhi scion narrated his own version of the story of Eklavya citing the famous Indian Epic Mahabharata as to how Kshatriyas’ teacher (Guru) Dron Acharya (for upper castes) exploited and destroyed poor boy’s career just because he hailed from the lower castes. In an attempt to establish an analogy between the Guru of the Kuru princes and the present Modi government, in his own characteristic way, Gandhi scion blamed the government of doing injustice with the minorities (mainly Muslims), Dalits and OBCs. He said that by bringing in lateral entry in the government jobs, the government was chopping off thumbs of the young backward class people; when there are paper leaks, the government is cutting thumbs of the youth of India. Criticising law and order situation in the BJP ruled states, he said that the culprits in the Hathras gang rape were roaming free and family members of the victim were constantly under threat and cannot venture out. He reiterated that his party will implement caste census to usher in a new kind of development in India.
While his allegations about the Constitution and Hindu scriptures shall be dealt with in the following paragraphs, the factual position of the Hathras gang rape case is briefly explained here. A 19-year-old woman was allegedly gang-raped in Hathras district, Uttar Pradesh on 14 September 2020 and later she died of injuries in a Delhi hospital. The case received widespread media attention and the opposition parties and pro-activists used the incident for mass protests against the Yogi Adityanath led BJP government in the state. A few state policemen and officers were suspended for laxity in performance of their duties and four accused men were arrested and prosecuted on the charges of the attempt to murder, gang rape and violation of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The state government gave a compensation of Rupees 25 lakh and job to one member of the victim’s family besides making allotment of a house in Hathras under the State Urban Development Agency (SUDA). Following an inquiry, a chargesheet was filed by the CBI in December 2020; the District Court acquitted three of the four accused and the fourth was sentenced to the life imprisonment and a fine of Rs fifty thousand.
The opposition parties in India, particularly the Congress, have a characteristic pattern. If any incident of crime against any member of the minority or dalit communities takes place in opposition ruled states, they simply underplay it but if it occurs in any BJP ruled state, the very politicians make it a big event, and also visit the victim’s family to derive maximum publicity and mileage out of it, even ensuring a widespread international coverage and publicity. One can cite a number of such cases and Hathras is one, where both the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited the victim’s family in the first week of October 2020, and time and again they have been quoting (or misquoting) the case in the Parliament and outside highlighting it as failure of the Yogi government of Uttar Pradesh in protecting Dalits and minorities. While speaking on the debate on Constitution, Gandhi scion also charged the Modi government committing excesses against the farmers outside Delhi for seeking the minimum support price (MSP) for their produce. He said that the Modi government facilitates profits to Adani and Ambani Groups, and cut off the thumbs of farmers.
Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi, in her maiden speech as the Lok Sabha member, made allegation about the BJP attempt to change the Constitution, handover of the national resources to a business group, continued atrocities on woman, and violence in Manipur and Sambhal town of Uttar Pradesh. Although she avoided anger and rhetoric but her attack on the BJP and Modi government was quite sharp and biting particularly in the context of the industrialist Gautam Adani and investigating agencies. She alleged that Modi government was giving undue favour to Gautam Adani at the expense of Indian population by passing over to him country’s wealth, airports and land. According to her, the government has deliberately weaponized the investigating agencies to silence dissent with fabricated false cases against the opposition leaders, which is a direct attack on democracy. The Constitution is like a ‘Suraksha kavach’ and attempts have been made to break this kavach during the last ten years, lateral entry and privatization are cases in point which will weaken the reservation. Many other opposition leaders within their allotted time too made similar scathing attack on the government, BJP, and some *personally against Prime Minister Modi.
In reply of the parliamentary debate on Constitution to the opposition, both Prime Minister Modi in the Lok Sabha and Home Minister Amit Shah in the Rajya Sabha not only effectively refuted allegations with supporting figures and facts as well as specific illustrations but also counterattacked the Congress for their past mistakes and misdeeds in fiddling with the original Constitution. Mr Modi said that India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi, and Rajiv Gandhi to the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, all of them committed the sin of denigrating, damaging and subverting it. Among many instances, to vindicate his averments, he quoted the specific instances like the curtailment of the freedom of speech and expression through the first amendment to the constitution by the Nehru government in 1951, the 42nd amendment by the Indira Gandhi government in 1977 after imposing emergency in the country in 1975 leading to change in the basic spirit and structure of the Constitution, and Rahul Gandhi’s sinful and contemptuous act of publicly tearing off the Ordinance notified by the Manmohan Singh government in 2013.
Reminding the constitutional provisions such as the need for a Uniform Civil Code, reservations to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and fifty percent cap on the reservation, Modi questioned the Congress party’s bid for a caste census and removal of the fifty percent cap, and alleged citing Congress leaders’ earlier statements that the Congress had always opposed reservation but now the party is playing a game to bring in reservation quota on the basis of religion. He reiterated his government’s commitment to a Uniform Civil Code and that his government is focussed on bringing a “secular civil code”, in keeping with the spirit of the Article 44 of Constitution. Prime Minister Modi spoke for nearly two hours wherein among other things the country’s unique diversity in terms of culture, religion, social and economic complexities was highlighted with emphasis on unity and harmony among all sections. On his part, he reiterated that since he came in power in 2014, his government’s policies and decisions have been aimed at boosting the country’s unity and strength in unison with the vision enshrined in the Constitution.
Of late, while attacking the BJP and Modi government, the Congress has constantly talked about the need of a caste census, reservation and wealth redistribution, and their commitment to implement this as and when voted in power. Mr Modi strongly countered the Congress’s rhetoric on reservation and quoted from history how apart from long speeches against reservation in the Parliament, Mr Jawaharlal Nehru wrote letters to the chief ministers of the states strongly opposing reservation. The Congress governments kept aside the report of Mandal Commission on OBCs for the decades and the latter got reservation only when the Congress was ousted from power. He said that the Congress leaders, especially Rahul Gandhi, now talks about dismal representation of SCs, STs and OBCs in higher bureaucracy but they actually lost out most because of the Congress’s appeasement politics. He alleged that the Congress, in its intent to appease its vote bank and greed for power, now wants to push reservation based on religion in violation of the spirit of Constitution.
During his well-reasoned criticism of the main opposition party, Mr Modi also referred to the non-constitutional National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by Smt. Sonia Gandhi functioning above the duly elected Prime Minister and his cabinet and an arrogant person’s (referring to Rahul Gandhi without naming him) public contempt and rejection of an ordinance brought by Manmohan Singh government in 2013. Attacking the Nehru-Gandhi family (not Mahatma Gandhi clan), he said that the family has constantly denigrated the spirit of the Constitution. The first blow to the Constitution was inflicted by the non-elected Nehru government in 1951 itself by amending it to curtail the freedom of speech and expression among other changes, which was an insult to the makers of the Constitution and tantamount to a sin. Ever since, every generation of the family repeatedly wounded the Constitution and to press his point, the prime minister referred to the 24th Amendment in 1971 that gave power to the Parliament to amend any part of the Constitution, including the fundamental rights, 42nd Amendment during the Emergency period which changed the basic nature of the Constitution, and the passage of law enacted by the Rajiv Gandhi government nullifying the Supreme Cout judgment about alimony in the Shah Bano case having a negative impact and implications on all divorced Muslim women.
Apart from the alleged blatant violations, Mr Modi also criticized the Congress of denigrating the Constitutional institutions. To illustrate the point, he said that the Article 35A granting special rights to the residents of Jammu & Kashmir was inserted in the Constitution without the approval of Parliament. Although the Congress party had clear majority in the Parliament around that period yet the Parliament was kept in dark as they wanted to hide it from the people. Whenever the party is out of power, they constantly doubt and question the constitutional and statutory institutions of the country such as the Election Commission of India, the Supreme Court, the Comptroller & Auditor General of India, Human Rights Commission, and so on. He reminded that the makers of the Constitution, including BR Ambedkar and KM Munshi, favoured need for the abolition of the religion-based personal laws, and even the Supreme Court has spoken about the need of a Uniform Civil Code in the country but the Congress and some other opposition parties have been constantly opposing it for their vested interests of the vote bank politics.
Countering the opposition allegation that the Modi government is pursuing a divisive policy, the prime minister stated that every big and significant decision of his government such as the abrogation of Article 370, uniform implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) across the nation, roll out of the initiatives like one nation – one health card, and many more social welfare and economic schemes were aimed at fostering unity and uniformity across the country. On the other hand, honouring and celebrating India’s cultural and ethnic diversity by making it as festive occasions of our life in various regions would be a real tribute to the makers of Constitution. He also referred to the ethics followed by the previous AB Vajpayee government on various occasions and stated that the Congress which did not adhere to the provisions to its own party Constitution had no right to talk about the country’s Constitution. To illustrate the point, he made one of the sharpest attacks in saying that the Congress had made Nehru the prime minister overruling the mandate of as many as twelve state units of the party favouring Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, while none of the fifteen provincial Congress committees favoured the former’s nomination. He also mentioned how the former Congress President Sitaram Kesari was ill-treated in the party, which has been controlled by one family disregarding democracy since independence.
Referring to the ill-famous cash-for-votes scandal of the Congress led UPA government in July 2008 to wade through the no-confidence motion shaming the democratic process, Mr Modi said that in a similar situation late AB Vajpayee of BJP preferred to resign after losing by just one vote rather than indulging in horse-trading like the Congress did under Mrs Sonia Gandhi to cling to power. He added while the Congress amended the Constitution many times for the sake of power and making Prime Minister, President and Governor immune to judicial action, his government amended it to empower women with 33 percent reservation in the Parliament and Assemblies, catering reservation for the poor in general category and strike down Article 370 for the unity and uniformity of every part of the country. The favourite tag word of the Congress these days is “jumla” that they use against Modi while the biggest jumla of the Congress itself has been “gareebi hatao” (poverty alleviation), coined by Indira Gandhi, that helped their party for decades but didn’t help the poor.
While Prime Minister chose to reply the opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha debate was concluded with the reply given by Home Minister on somewhat similar lines albeit also with relevant data and information on specific averments made. The way both BJP stalwarts spoke with figures and facts, opposition allegations and criticism about the Constitution turned out to be empty and weak without substance. In the end, it was pretty clear that the opposition had made a blunder in choosing a subject to attack the ruling NDA alliance that ultimately backfired on them, more so on the grand old party. In the following paragraphs, the author would briefly summarize the salient points of the Congress rhetoric for the last about a year or so about the Constitution being endangered by the Modi rule as also a few illustrative major amendments and legislations under the Congress regimes highlighted by the leaders of ruling alliance in their speeches that violated Constitution and/or had gone against its spirit.
A. Congress Narratives on Constitution
Of late and well before the last parliamentary elections for the 18th Lok Sabha in April-June 2024, the grand old party (Congress), now in opposition for the last over ten years, started making a narrative with allegations that neither the Constitution nor any democratic institution is safe under the present BJP led NDA government. Accordingly, the party promised several drastic changes in their election manifesto christened as the Nyay Patra in the name of saving democracy, removing fear, restoring freedom, reversing the damage caused, including in the media, judiciary, art, culture and heritage. According to this manifesto, if the Congress party comes to power, they will make investigations and enforce corrective action in all areas. If the Congress version is to be taken, the democracy in India has been reduced to an empty shell with all institutions, including Parliament, having lost their independence, thereby becoming subservient to the Modi government. Hence, the Congress leaders promise freedom from fear, restoration of speech and expression, decriminalization of defamation, review the Tele Communication Act, 2023 to delete unacceptable laws, ensure the choice of freedom of food, dress, love and marriage (aimed at appeasing Muslims), and everything that interferes with personal freedom and the right to privacy.
The Congress constantly questions the democratic process of voting through EVMs (electronic voting machine), transparency in the election process and independent functioning of the constitutional and statutory bodies like the Election Commission, Human Rights Commission, Central Information Commission, C&AG, and so on. This is in spite of the fact that they have not been able to make even one sustainable case to justify their allegation against the government while there are a number concrete cases against them in the past about fiddling with these institutions to make the constitutional authorities and institutions subservient to their government. Currently, enforcement and investigating agencies have taken action against several political leaders and lawmakers who amassed disproportionate assets and wealth beyond any known sources and were enjoying immunity in previous regimes, which the Congress perceives as part of a conspiracy and vendetta politics. Accordingly, they talk about their commitment to make necessary changes in such agencies and make them answerable. In fact, some leaders have even sporadically threatened the investigating agencies for reprisal when in power.
The Congress alleges that the present government carried out tremendous damage by misusing the brute majority to make laws violating the letter and spirit of the Constitution of India as well as the fundamental principles of the law-making, namely necessity, consultation, reasonableness and proportionality during the last 10 years relating to workers, farmers, criminal justice, environment & forests and digital data protection. Similarly, they frequently talk about the Article 370 and status of the Jammu & Kashmir insisting that they will reverse it again. In the name of reversing the damage caused to the Constitution, the Congress made a promise in their manifesto and leaders stated at occasions to review and change all laws passed by the Modi government as and when voted in power. The Congress holds similar position on reviewing and reversing several government decisions, schemes and programmes such as the demonetization, the Rafale deal, Pegasus spyware, GST, and the electoral bond scheme, and so on. The Congress also feels that a significant part of the media has been robbed of, or surrendered their freedom during the last ten years of the Modi regime. So, they wish to enact required legislation supplemented with the executive action to ensure the freedom of press and internet.
B. Controversial Amendments during Congress Regime
During the reply on the Rajya Sabha debate on Constitution, Home Minister Amit Shah mentioned that the Congress governments had made as many as seventy-seven amendments some of which are very controversial and against the spirit of Constitution and welfare of people. A few such amendments and their implications are briefly illustrated as follows.
1st Amendment on 18 June 1951: Through this legislation, several Articles of the Constitution were amended by the Nehru government even before the first formal parliamentary election to constitute an elected government in the country. These amendments were carried out to uphold the constitutional validity of zamindari abolition laws and to place restriction on the freedom of speech and expression. A new constitutional instrument known as the 9th Schedule was added to defend laws contrary to the Constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights. As these laws encroach upon the property rights, freedom of speech and equality before law; hence many constitutional experts, political parties and people consider it controversial and criticize the Congress party till date.
38th & 39th Amendments Between 1-10 August 1975: The powers of President and Governors was enhanced through 38th amendment to pass ordinances on the recommendation of the government in certain contingencies, which led to dismissal of many democratically elected state governments. 39th amendment was designed to keep null & void the Allahabad High Court judgment invalidating then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s election to the Parliament besides imposing restrictions on judicial scrutiny of the post of prime minister. This amendment was bad in law in a democracy because it was made to suit a particular person to stay in a position of power.
42nd Amendment on 1 April 1977: This has been the most controversial amendment in the Constitution passed during the internal emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi when almost all opposition leaders were in jail following the judgment of the Allahabad High Court invaliding her election from the Raebareli on the grounds of proven election fraud and use of the state machinery. Sweeping changes were made in the Constitution amending several articles further curtailing fundamental rights, imposing fundamental duties and changes to the fundamental structure of the constitution. Although despite the division of India on religion basis, it practically remained a secular democracy after independence but through this amendment India was officially made a “Socialist Secular” Republic.
Besides, there are many legislations on record passed by the Congress governments which did not per se amend the Constitution but have been practically against the spirit of the Constitution and against the interests of the majority community or people. For instance, the Article 44 of the Constitution reads “The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India” but Nehru government deemed it proper only to enact only Hindu Code Bill in 1954 and left Muslims out of the purview of the civil code despite several evil social practices like triple talaq, halala and multiple marriages in the sharia-based Islamic law. Similarly, several legislations were enacted by the Congress governments especially aimed at favouring one particular community such as the Places of Worship Act (1991), Waqf Act, 1995, and Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2013, Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act 1986, etc. By nomenclature, it would appear as if the last Act quoted above is for the welfare of the divorced Muslim women but, in reality, the Rajiv Gandhi led Congress government then used their brute majority in the Parliament to negate the Supreme Court judgment granting alimony to the divorcee Shah Bano and this Act restricts the rights of all Muslim women divorcees to alimony only for 90 days i.e. period of Iddah in Islamic Law.
Conclusion Derived
Undoubtedly, the two-days parliamentary debate on the Constitution turned out to be yet another occasion of bitter and intense diatribe between the ruling alliance and the opposition parties in its 75th year. Instead of the opportunity being utilized as the debate to explore a new common ground for the welfare and betterment of all communities and the nation, various speakers from the opposition parties, particularly the Congress, Samajwadi Party and Trinmool Congress as also the ruling alliance led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, spoke against their political rivals using the Constitution merely as a facade for their partisan politics in usual action and reaction mode. While the Gandhi family members Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi chose the Prime Minister Modi, the BJP and RSS to accuse as being disrespectful and bent upon to destroy the Constitution made by Ambedkar for pursuing Hindutva ideology, the prime minister in turn chose to specifically target the Nehru-Gandhi family members who allegedly undermined the Constitution at their whims and fancies to stay in power.
Both the opposition and ruling parties argued that they were working to strengthen the Constitution as well as the unity and integrity of the nation, while vehemently accusing each other of dividing the country with partisan politics. But this is also true that if one party attacks, the other is bound and justified too to defend self; this is what actually occurred during the parliamentary debate. The opposition members indulged in accusations and the ruling party members made counter attack to defend self. However, in this author’s opinion, Prime Minister Modi was right when he also chose to call the Constitution as a unifier of the nation, and quoted his government’s resolve and push for a Uniform Civil Code as an illustration of the commitment to work for this unity. India is undoubtedly the most diversified nation on socio-cultural, religious and economic parameters, which needs a close and unified attention and approach by all the political parties to secure its unity and inclusive growth and development in the ensuing decades in the true spirit of the constitutional provisions. In this context, 11 resolutions listed by Prime Minister Modi for the future of India are most relevant while summarizing the Constitutional debate in the Lok Sabha.
Briefly, these resolutions are: 1) Both citizens and government officials must uphold their duties; 2) every aspect of society should be developed with Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas (Everyone’s support, everyone’s development); 3) zero tolerance towards corruption i.e. the corrupt individuals shouldn’t be accepted in the society; 4) people should be proud of the country’s laws, orders and traditions; 5) people should be freed from a slave mentality and instil pride in the country’s heritage; 6) free the country from the dynast politics; 7) everyone should respect the constitution and the constitution shouldn’t be used as a weapon for political gains; 8) everyone should be dedicated to the inherent spirit of the Constitution, reservations should not be taken away from the people, and we must prevent any attempts to introduce religion-based reservations; 9) India should become an example of women-led development in the world; 10) the mantra of the development of the country shall be through the development of states; and 11) the vision of Ek Bharat, Shresth Bharat (One India, Great India) should be paramount for everyone. He concluded adding that all should go forward with these resolutions and the inherent spirit of the Constitution.
The author has no hesitation to conclude that the opposition made a blunder for in calling for a debate on the Constitution to attack and embarrass the Modi government. The fact remains that the Constitution has already been the most abused word in the media and public utterances by some of the opposition parties and people of a certain ideology during since Narendra Modi became prime minister. The paradox is that be it restrictions and ban on media, films, books, or dismissal of the elected state governments, such occurrences mostly occurred during the previous Congress regimes under the members of Nehru-Gandhi family, as also some of the most debatable and controversial amendments in the Constitution such as the 1st and 42nd amendment of the Constitution during the emergency rule; yet the Congress party and members of the same family constantly make allegations that neither the Constitution nor any democratic institution is safe under the Modi government. During the last ten years, the Modi government has neither dismissed any elected government despite serious lapses in governance in some states nor acted against any democratic institution sans a few terrorist and antinational organizations like PFI. The misconstrued strategy of the opposition against the government has only backfired on them, further strengthening the belief that the Indian democracy and secularism is safe under the Modi regime.
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