Constitution guides like lighthouse, its spirit valuable: PM Modi in Rajya Sabha

The Congress is the “biggest opponent of the Constitution” and is running a “fake narrative” that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sought a brute mandate in the Lok Sabha elections to alter its provisions to mislead the public, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Parliament on Wednesday, as he launched an all-out attack on the opposition party, which ultimately staged a walkout along with its allies.

During his reply to the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in the Rajya Sabha, Modi said the Constitution guides the citizens “like a lighthouse” and is “not just a compilation of Articles but its spirit and imprint are extremely valuable”.

He also invoked the Emergency that was imposed by the Congress in 1975 and stressed how the grand old party had disregarded the Constitution and undermined democratic processes.

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In the run-up to the elections, the Congress and other opposition parties had accused the BJP of setting a target to win 400 out of 543 seats to change the Constitution and do away with caste-based quotas. Statements by BJP leaders like former lawmaker Lallu Singh and former Union minister Anantkumar Hegde on the need to revisit the Constitution fuelled the Opposition’s campaign, even as Modi and his party dismissed the allegations.

Speaking in the House, Modi challenged the Opposition’s claim that the recent parliamentary elections were fought to “protect the Constitution”.

“There has been no bigger election to protect the Constitution than in 1977, when the country voted to restore democracy,” Modi said, adding that the polls that year were fought to protect the Constitution following the Emergency.

He also took a swipe at the Congress and said the grand old party equated former prime minister Indira Gandhi with the country. “They are the ones who said India is Indira…,” he said.

Modi said the “Constitution is not just a compilation of Articles, but its spirit and imprint are extremely valuable.” “Our Constitution guides us like a lighthouse..,” he said, adding that the people of the country gave the BJP the mandate for a third time with a sense of confidence and firm belief that it will make India’s economy the third largest in the world.

Though the BJP emerged as the single largest party, winning 240 seats in the general elections, it fell short of the simple majority mark of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha, making it dependent on allies to form the next government. Overall, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) enjoys a comfortable majority with 293 seats.

While Modi, in his speech, did not refer to the party’s losses in the polls, he read the verdict as a manifestation of people’s faith in the BJP. “If the election this year was to defend the Constitution, then the people of the country put their faith in us,” he said.

He attributed his rise in the echelons of power to the provisions of the Constitution drafted by BR Ambedkar, saying: “It is the Constitution given by Babasaheb Ambedkar that allowed people like me, with zero political lineage, to enter politics and reach such a stage.”

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Amid Modi’s relentless attack on the Congress, the party and its allies in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) staged a protest. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge tried to intervene but was not allowed to speak, prompting the bloc to stage a walkout midway through Modi’s speech. Later in the day, Kharge said “INDIA parties walked out of Rajya Sabha because Modi was lying”.

The Prime Minister, however, continued with his attack in the House. He said that some parties that suffered the excesses, including incarceration of their leaders, during the Emergency have now joined hands with the Congress. Without naming these parties, he dubbed them as “avsarvadi” or opportunists.

“It was a humanitarian crisis... ,” he said, adding how Jayaprakash Narayan, who led the campaign against Emergency, was jailed and suffered health issues that he could not recover from. “Many who left home never returned after the Emergency...” he said and referred to excesses against minorities in Muzaffarnagar and Turkman Gate (in Delhi) during the period.

He alleged the Congress was guilty of several transgressions during its tenure from 2004 to 2014 and said the National Advisory Council (NAC) – an advisory body that was set up by the United Progressive Alliance in 2004 to advise then prime minister Manmohan Singh – was tackled through “remote control”.

Without naming former Congress chief and Rajya Sabha MP Sonia Gandhi, he said: “These people are used to running the government on autopilot and remote pilot. They don’t believe in working, they just know how to wait.”