New Delhi: Launching a piercing assault on the Congress in Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday stated that having “tasted blood” below the primary PM, Jawaharlal Nehru, successive governments led by members of the Gandhi household introduced a collection of amendments within the Structure, “undermining” its foundational rules.
Responding to the two-day dialogue on the ‘Superb journey of 75 years of the Structure of India’, Modi, in a speech that lasted two hours, appealed to the nation to protect towards the “designs of the Congress” to introduce religion-based reservation in its “greed and starvation for energy”, and reiterated his dedication to implement a “Secular Civil Code”.
From Nehru to Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi, and, after all, Rahul Gandhi, Modi was unsparing in attacking generations of the household that has been the facility centre of the Congress. The imposition of Emergency below Indira, and the excesses that adopted, “is a sin that may eternally be etched on the brow of the Congress”, stated the PM.
He drew a distinction between the constitutional amendments launched by Congress regimes and those introduced by the present dispensation since 2014. He listed the abrogation of Article 370 that stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its particular standing, the rollout of GST, and the modification of the Citizenship Act as requirements to “rectify the errors of the previous” and make the nation’s future brighter.
“One household of the Congress didn’t depart any stone unturned to undermine the Structure. And I point out one household as a result of out of the final 75 years, it managed the nation for 55 years. This household harboured dangerous concepts, actions, insurance policies and this custom continues to this date. At each attainable degree, this household has challenged the constitutional rules and values,” Modi stated.
Two members of the Gandhi household — Chief of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and his sister, Wayanad MP, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra — had been current within the Home as Modi’s broadside towards them continued. Different Congress MPs protested a number of the remarks made by the PM, who appeared to pay no consideration to them.
After dedicating the primary jiffy of his speech to extol the virtues and contributions of the makers of the Structure, together with the ladies members of the constituent meeting, Modi went on the offensive, claiming individuals with “perverted mindsets who can not digest the nation’s good” sought to take advantage of variations within the nation’s range to their benefit.
The PM then sniped at Nehru, questioning the primary constitutional modification in 1951 below his watch that restricted the scope of freedom of speech assured by Article 19(1)(a). He added that Nehru did so even though he was but to be elected to workplace as the primary basic election in unbiased India was held in 1952, wherein the Congress registered a landslide victory.
Modi additional claimed that Nehru even wrote letters to the then chief ministers of states, advising them that the Structure should be amended if it is available in the way in which of reaching sure issues. “It’s then that the Congress tasted blood and it continued to land blows on the Structure. Successive PMs nurtured the seed that Nehru had sown as they went to amend the Structure 75 instances.”
Below Indira, Modi stated, the Structure was first amended in 1971, referring to the twenty fourth modification that sought to overturn a Supreme Court docket ruling which had prompt that the Parliament couldn’t limit basic rights in any method. By doing so, he added, Indira paved the way in which for the curtailment of basic rights throughout the Emergency.
“Later, when a court docket held her election victory as invalid, she imposed Emergency out of anger and to avoid wasting her chair. Below her, the idea of a dedicated judiciary took form. She was so vindictive that Justice HR Khanna was neglected regardless of his seniority when the flip to choose the subsequent chief justice got here,” Modi stated.
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‘Starvation and greed for energy’
The PM referred to the overturning of the Supreme Court docket’s landmark Shah Bano judgment—which prolonged upkeep to aggrieved Muslim girls—as one other occasion of the Gandhi household sacrificing constitutional rules for votebank politics. It was below Rajiv Gandhi as prime minister that the choice was taken by means of laws.
“As a substitute of standing with a lady searching for justice, he stood with fundamentalists. It’s as a result of by then that they had tasted blood,” Modi stated. Throughout the time of the UPA authorities, the formation of the “unelected and unconstitutional” Nationwide Advisory Council and “imposing it upon the prime minister’s workplace” flew from that very same custom of the “Gandhi household undermining the Structure”, he added.
Subsequent, he referred to Rahul Gandhi “tearing up” an ordinance introduced by the UPA II authorities to protect convicted lawmakers from instant disqualification. “And the federal government truly withdrew that ordinance. What sort of a system was that? They’ve toyed with the Structure over a long time and made it their behavior. The Congress has relentlessly sought to decrease the dignity of the Structure,” Modi stated. In 2013, Rahul had stated at a press convention that the ordinance ought to be “torn up and thrown away”.
The PM taunted the Congress, saying it by no means abided by its personal get together structure. The truth that Nehru was picked to steer the nation after independence over Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel regardless of a majority of the Pradesh Congress committees voting within the latter’s favour was indicative of the Congress’s disavowal of constitutional and democratic values, Modi stated.
Looking for to blunt the Congress’s offensive towards the BJP on the query of the rights of Dalits and its caste census pitch, Modi stated the Mandal Fee report recommending reservation for OBCs was applied solely when the Congress was dislodged from energy. “Had the OBCs been granted reservation below the Congress, many occupants of excessive places of work would have been OBCs at the moment,” he stated.
The PM claimed that the Congress needs to supply religion-based reservation, regardless of the constituent meeting concluding after lengthy discussions that no such provision ought to be made for the sake of the nation’s unity. “However the starvation and greed for energy is making the Congress undertake such makes an attempt”, he stated, interesting to the individuals to face towards “such designs”.
This was among the many “11 vows” that he requested individuals to take whereas winding up his speech. The others embody zero tolerance towards corruption, taking pleasure within the nation’s heritage and shunning the “mindset of slavery”, women-led growth, respect for the Structure, and ridding the nation of dynastic politics.
Modi invoked Babasaheb Ambedkar in making the case for a Uniform Civil Code within the nation. Ambedkar, he stated, had advocated the necessity for a UCC, transferring away from the religion-based private legal guidelines. “We’re making efforts to provide you with a Secular Civil Code. The Congress is opposing it as a result of it doesn’t go well with its politics. It seeks to weaponise the Structure for political good points.”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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