Union Home Minister Amit Shah speaks during the Constitution debate in Rajya Sabha, in New Delhi on December 17, 2024.
| Photo Credit: ANI/Sansad TV
Comparing and contrasting the Constitutional amendments brought by the governments led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and with that steered by Congress governments, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the Congress altered fundamental Constitutional provisions for political gain, while the BJP focused on empowering citizens.
Calling the Congress “anti-reservation”, the Home Minister said that the only reason the Congress wants an increase in the 50% ceiling is to provide reservation on religious lines.
The Minister accused the Congress for “finding faults” in EVMs after losing elections. Mr. Shah chided the Leader of House in Lok Sabha and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his remarks on V. D. Savarkar.
Mr. Shah was replying to the 31-hour-long debate on “glorious journey of 75 years of the Constitution of India” in which 80 members participated in the Upper House.
Accusing the Opposition of peddling a wrong narrative targeting electoral gain during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Mr. Shah said, “The 54-year-old leader who calls himself ‘yuva’ keeps roaming around with the Constitution claiming that we would change the Constitution. I want to tell that the provision to amend the Constitution is with the Constitution.”
The Constitution is not an immutable document and Article 368 enables bringing in amendments. “BJP has ruled for 16 years, and we made 22 amendments to the Constitution. Congress ruled for 55 years and made 77 changes,” Mr. Shah said. He listed out four amendments brought by governments led by each of the two parties.
“The First Amendment was made on June 18, 1951. After the formation of the Constitution, Congress did not have enough patience even to wait for the Lok Sabha elections. Article 19A was added to curtail the freedom of speech and Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister at that time,” Mr. Shah said. Next, he listed the 24th Amendment by the Indira Gandhi government. This Mr. Shah pointed out was to restrict the fundamental rights of the citizens.
In comparison, he listed out amendments brought by the Narendra Modi government to introduce the GST, granting constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes, 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections in education and government jobs, and restoring the power of State governments to identify socially and educationally backward classes.
“The Congress considered the Constitution as private fiefdom of one family and deceived Parliament,” Mr. Shah said. He spent several minutes giving an account of the welfare schemes of the BJP government in the last two-terms.
The Home Minister said that the Congress repeatedly blocked efforts to bring in reservation for Other Backward Classes. “Twice under the Congress governments, reservation was extended on religious lines. This is unconstitutional. Read the Constituent Assembly debates, it clearly lays down that reservations can only be extended on the basis of backwardness. They want to breach the 50% ceiling to extend reservations for Muslims to extend reservation on religious lines,” Mr. Shah said to loud protests from the Opposition benches. He further asserted, “I want to assure you today, till there is even a single BJP MP in this Parliament, we shall not allow reservation on religious lines.”
The Congress emphatically opposed Mr. Shah’s comments, with party’s chief whip Jairam Ramesh intervening saying that the Congress has never extended reservation on religious lines.
Mr. Shah said that the fabric of Indian Constitution is “secular” and it therefore supported a “Common Civil Code.” He asked, “Why did the Uniform Civil Code not come? It didn’t come because first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru brought Muslim Personal Law. I want to ask Congress, in a secular country shouldn’t there be one law for all religions?” This he claimed was the beginning of politics of appeasement. He said that all BJP-led State governments will bring UCC on the lines of the law cleared by Uttarakhand Assembly.
Speaking earlier in the day, Leader of the House, BJP president and Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, said in his intervention that B.R. Ambedkar had warned against the “bad” people who can misuse the Constitution.
Mr. Nadda targeted the past regimes headed by Congress leaders, particularly from Nehru-Gandhi family, and said the “bad part” warned by Ambedkar proved correct with instances such as introducing Article 370, invoking Article 356 to dismiss elected governments, proclamation of Emergency and nullifying the Supreme Court verdict in Shah Bano case on triple talaq.
Published – December 17, 2024 10:15 pm IST
