Replying to a two-day debate in the Lok Sabha on the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution, he called for taking 11 resolutions, including zero tolerance towards corruption and ensuring every section of society gets the benefits of development. The Prime Minister said this would ensure true secularism and social justice.
He also said the government is working on a uniform civil code, calling it a “secular civil code.”
In a speech lasting more than 100 minutes, Modi lashed out at past Congress governments, accusing them of planting “poisonous” seeds in the country’s diversity to accentuate its contradictions and damage its unity.
Slamming the Nehru-Gandhi family, he said, “This family challenged the Constitution at every level,” citing several decisions of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi when they held the office of the Prime Minister. He said he was singling out the family as its members were in power for 55 years.
‘Indira Gandhi Mutilated Constitution’
Their next generation is into the same game, Modi said, referring to the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and his MP sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.The Prime Minister said leaders like him 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 Modi walked underneath barefoot, in a symbolic gesture to highlight its supremacy.
Modi said Nehru, India’s first PM, amended the country’s guiding document to curb freedom of expression, while his daughter, Indira Gandhi, imposed Emergency to defy a Supreme Court judgement 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, said Modi, adding that she also introduced an amendment to protect the President, Vice-President and herself from any legal challenge to their position, with retrospective effect.
The country was turned into jail and the judiciary was throttled, the PM said. Rajiv Gandhi, who took over as Prime Minister after his mother’s assassination, also amended the Constitution, he said. This blot on the Congress cannot be washed off, Modi asserted.
Without naming Rahul Gandhi, he said an “arrogant” person tore a document with the decision of the Cabinet during the Congress-led UPA government headed by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Further, he said, the National Advisory Council, which was headed by Sonia Gandhi, was put “above” the Cabinet during the UPA rule.
While the makers of the Constitution took a considered decision to disallow reservation on the basis of religion and faith in the interest of the country’s unity and integrity, the Congress, in its “greed for power” and to “appease its vote bank” pushed for it in violation of the constitutional spirit, he said.
His government, Modi said, repealed Article 370 to unify the country and brought in GST (goods and services tax) to roll out the ‘one nation one tax’ regime.
Mother Of Democracy
The Prime Minister hailed India’s journey since the adoption of the Constitution in 1949 as “extraordinary,” and said the country’s ancient democratic roots have long been an inspiration for the world.
India is not only a big democracy but it is the mother of democracy, he said in the Lok Sabha, replying to a two-day debate on the 75 years of the adoption of the Constitution.
Modi said India has resolved to become a developed country by 2047 and its unity is the biggest requirement to achieve the goal.
“Our Constitution is the basis of our unity,” he said. India, he said, defied all apprehensions about its democratic future after independence, and added that its Constitution has brought the country to this stage.
PM Modi paid tributes to the makers of the Constitution and the citizens for living up to the spirit of the document. The PM said those involved in the making of the Constitution were well aware that India was not born in 1947, or turned democratic in 1950, citing remarks of Purushottam Das Tandon and Bhim Rao Ambedkar, among others.
Women were given voting rights by the Constitution, he said, adding that the country is now seeing women-led development. He lauded Parliamentarians for the unanimous passage of the law to give reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and Assemblies.
