Cong repeatedly wounded Constitution after...: Modi
December 14, 2024 19:53
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday alleged that the Congress, having "tasted blood", repeatedly wounded the Constitution while his government's policies and decisions since it took office in 2014 have been aimed at boosting India's strength and unity in line with the vision of the Constitution.
Replying to a two-day debate in Lok Sabha on the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution, he took a swipe at the past Congress governments, accusing them of planting "poisonous" seeds in the country's diversity to accentuate its contradictions and damage its unity.
Training guns at the Nehru-Gandhi family of the Congress, he said they left no stone unturned to strike blows to the Constitution.
"This family challenged the Constitution at every level," he said, adding that he was singling out the family as its members were in power for 55 years.
The family, having "tasted blood", repeatedly wounded the Constitution, he said, citing several decisions of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi when they held the office of prime minister.
Their next generation is also into the same game, he said in a swipe at the Leader of Opposition in the House Rahul Gandhi and his MP sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Modi said leaders like him and many others who came from ordinary families could never have reached where they did but for the strength of the Constitution, as he underlined his long commitment to its values.
As chief minister of Gujarat, he said, his government celebrated the 60th year of the Constitution's adoption by placing a copy of the document on an elephant while he walked underneath barefoot in a symbolic gesture to highlight its supremacy.
Slamming the Nehru-Gandhi family, he said first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru amended the country's guiding document to curb freedom of expression and his daughter Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency to defy a Supreme Court judgment that annulled her election as an MP.
She "throttled India's democracy and mutilated the Constitution" when the 25th year of its adoption was approaching, to save her chair as prime minister, he said, noting that she also effected an amendment to protect the president, vice president and herself from any legal challenge to their position with a retrospective effect.
The country was turned into jail and the judiciary was throttled, he said. Rajiv Gandhi, who took over as prime minister after his mother's assassination, also amended the Constitution.
This blot on the Congress cannot be washed off, Modi asserted.
Without naming Rahul Gandhi, the prime minister said an "arrogant" person tore the decision of the Cabinet when the Congress-led UPA government headed by the then prime minister Manmohan Singh was in power.
The National Advisory Council, which was headed by Sonia Gandhi, was put "above" the Cabinet during the UPA rule, he added. -- PTI
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