Modi leads BJP counter-charge to quash Opposition claims of ‘changes in Constitution’

BJP sources admit that the strategy is deliberate, with the party realising that its target of “400 paar (more than 400)” Lok Sabha seats was being projected by INDIA as the first step towards “changing” the Constitution. Specifically, the INDIA messaging has been targeted at SC/STs, with Dalit voters in some parts expressing apprehension about “Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution” being changed.

Remarks by some BJP leaders, including candidates in the Lok Sabha polls, suggesting changes in the Constitution only gave the Opposition more ammunition. A BJP leader said they had got feedback from the ground that tribals, besides the minorities and Dalits, were raising questions about the issue.

Party leaders also feared that the impression that the BJP could change the Constitution would hurt it in southern states, where it is already looked upon with suspicion by many as a North-centric, majoritarian party.

It was then that Modi himself took charge. If, in Gaya, the PM said that even Ambedkar “cannot change the Constitution”, Union Home Minister Amit Shah pointed out in an interview to NDTV that if the BJP wanted to change the statute, it would have done so in the 10 years that it has been in power with absolute majority. “The Congress has a habit of misusing its majority, not us,” Shah said.

The counter-offensive, putting the Congress on the spot over quota changes, has followed since.

BJP sources said the high-decibel counter-attack is to ensure that the Opposition has no ground left to attack it over the Constitution issue, even if it brings up instances from the past to attack the Modi government.

For example, a 2015 advertisement ahead of Republic Day issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting featuring the Preamble without the words “socialist” and “secular”. As controversy followed, BJP ministers had assured that the government had no intention to make any changes in the Preamble, while pointing out that the words had themselves been inserted by the Indira Gandhi government through the 42nd Amendment.

Then Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said there was no “harm” in a debate on the issue, and that the image shared by the I&B Ministry was actually of the “original” Preamble.

The BJP and RSS have earlier too questioned these changes carried out during the Emergency by the Indira-led Congress government, including a change in the words “unity of the nation” to “unity and integrity of the nation” in the Preamble.

Interestingly, the Preamble whose copies were distributed to MPs ahead of the inauguration of the new Parliament building last year also had the words “socialist” and “secular” missing. Again, the government argued that it had shared the “original version” of the Preamble.

In between, in 2021, BJP MP K J Alphons moved a motion to introduce a Constitution (Amendment) Bill in the Upper House to amend the Preamble. But when the Bill was to be taken up in February 2022, Alphons was not present in the Rajya Sabha, and hence it was not discussed.

During the term of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government, a National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution led by Venkatachaliah Commission was set up in February 2000. Its mandate was to examine “in the light of the experience of the past 50 years as to how best the Constitution can respond to the changing needs of an efficient, smooth and effective system of governance and socio-economic development of a modern India within the framework of the parliamentary democracy” and to recommend changes.

Although Vajpayee had clarified that the basic features of the Constitution would not be tinkered with, many had raised doubts about the government’s intent as the statement was issued after K R Narayanan, India’s first Dalit President, warned that there was no need to change the basic features.

The BJP has earlier burned its hands over the reservation issue, after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said there could be a review of the provision. Since then, both the BJP and RSS have repeatedly asserted their commitment to reservation for SCs and STs.

As for Modi, party leaders argue that he is the last one who needs a certificate to show his commitment to the Constitution, being the PM under whom November 25 has come to be celebrated as Constitution Day.