Repeated Violations of the Constitution by the Modi regime & A People’s Movement to Make “Save the Constitution”an Electoral Issue | S.N. Sahu

The INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) alliance partners consisting of several opposition parties met in Mumbai on 1st September 2023 and declared, among others, that they came together to save the Constitution and democracy from the relentless onslaught of BJP and Modi regime. Little did they realise at that time that the issue of saving the Constitution would become a key electoral issue in the 2024 general elections and Dalits, scheduled tribes, Other Backward Classes and Muslims, constituting 90 per cent of the population, would come forward to make it a central poll issue.

Saving the Constitution a Major Poll Issue Across the Country

On 6th May 2024, just a day before the third phase of the elections which commenced on 7th May. the top headline of Indian Express with the caption, “Constitution, Quota at the Centre Stage, Phase 3 Campaign for 93 Seats Ends,” conveyed the clear message that Modi regime’s attack on the Constitution has agitated the electorate in a manner which was never anticipated. The fear that the Constitution would be changed after Modi comes back to power for a third term with 400 plus seats is not just gripping people of the Hindi heartland but also of the southern part of the country. For instance, around 3.45 PM on 7th May in indinaexpress.com it was published under the caption, “In drought-hit Karnataka region, fears of change in Constitution find fertile ground.”

Those two media coverages on the issue of the Constitution becoming a central narrative during elections indicate the people’s concerns for defending it.

Celebration of Constitution Day and Violation of Constitution

But the key issue is how the Constitution has emerged as a key poll issue and people are in the forefront to save it from the BJP and the Modi regime. It may be recalled that in 2015 Modi Government started celebrating the Constitution Day on 26th November to mark the adoption and enactment of the Constitution on that day in 1949. Earlier never ever any Government designated 26th November as Constitution Day. Modi, on assuming the office of Prime Minister for his first term in 2014 categorically stated that due to the Constitution, a person like him could be chosen by people to occupy that high office and described it as a holy book. With such ostensible pronouncements upholding the Constitution people got an impression that here is a Prime Minister who has possibly set a new benchmark in reinforcing the overriding importance of the Constitution for ordinary people.

RSS Dismissed the Constitution and Ridiculed Ambedkar

Such categorical pronouncements constituted a clear departure from the stand of RSS which very sharply criticised the Constitution and opposed it on 30th November 1949, four days after it was adopted and enacted on 26th November that year. It did so in its mouthpiece, Organiser, by writing in a derisive manner about the Constitution of India and charging those who framed it that they used several provisions of the Constitutions of the western countries and never found the Manusmriti of any use.

It also ridiculed Dr. B R Ambedkar on being hailed as a modern Manu by publishing a letter to the Editor in which it was stated, “It borders on ridicule to put Dr Ambedkar on par with the learned and god-like Manu…. Surely Dr Ambedkar’s disservice in the recent past to the Hindu religion is too well-known…”

With such a historical background of RSS’s disapproval of the Constitution and its contempt for Ambedkar, Modi, who was its Pracharak (propagator), heaping praise on the Constitution created an impression that he and his regime would act as per the Constitution and constitutional morality.

Trampling the Constitution and Reservation Facilities

But later, voices emerged from within the RSS and BJP expressing the intent to alter the Constitution and reservation facilities and affirmative action for the Dalits and other socially disadvantaged groups. There were calls issued from religious parliaments attended by BJP legislators for genocide of minorities and specially that of Muslims and their comprehensive boycott from the social and economic fields. All those alarming calls constituted a negation and rejection of the Constitution. The call for change of the Constitution, after Modi became Prime Minister in 2014, was signalled by RSS Chief Mohan Bhagawat who made a public statement in 2015 for review of reservation facilities. Two years later in 2017 BJP leader from Karnataka, Ananta Hegde, as a Union Minister in the Modi Government, stated that Constitution would be changed and went on to add that Modi came to power with a clear majority in 2014 primarily with the objective to do so. While brazenly saying so he even derided those describing themselves as secularists and instead urged them to get rooted in their immediate religious, caste or other ascribed identities by shunning secularism. Later when there was widespread criticism inside and outside Parliament, he tendered apology and even Government issued a clarification to the effect that what Hegde said was not the Government’s view.

Modi Regime’s Legislations Violated the Constitution

Several measures taken by Modi regime and legislations it passed in the Parliament by employing crude majority it commanded in the Lok Sabha breached the core aspects of the Constitution which it is duty bound to uphold. The passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act to grant citizenship of India to Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Jains and Sikhs of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on the grounds that they are being persecuted in those countries because of their religions and denying the same to the persecuted Muslims of those countries clearly linked, for the first time, the idea of citizenship of our country to religion. It is contrary to the constitutionally ordained idea of Indian citizenship which has never been seen from the perspective of any religion.

While taking credit for celebrating 26th November as the Constitution Day Modi regime has been contravening the Constitution with impunity for the last ten years. A few examples in this regard will testify to such contraventions. For instance, when in September 2021 three farm laws were passed by the Parliament by voice vote, at least in the Rajya Sabha, several Members demanded actual voting under Article 100 of the Constitution and the Deputy Chairman of the House did not allow it. That was a clear violation of the Constitution and stood in sharp contrast to the celebrations of Constitution Day.

Not Appointing Deputy Speaker Violated the Constitution

Article 93 of the Constitution provides for a Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha and by convention a Member of the House belonging to the opposition bench holds that post. But during 2019 and 2024 the post of the Deputy Speaker was never filled up and such a step violated the letter and spirit of the Constitution which mandates for the appointment of a Deputy Speaker. Never in the history of the Lok Sabha, such a retrograde step was taken by not filling up the post of Deputy Speaker.

Unconstitutional Electoral Bond Scheme

Yet another example of flagrant violation of the Constitution was demonstrated by Modi regime when it framed the Electoral Bond Scheme which was declared by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. That Scheme has been described, in several quarters, as the biggest scam in the history of independent India.

Basic Structure of the Constitution Targeted

Tragically even the 1974 Supreme Court judgement, in the Kesavananda Bharati case, that the basic structure of the Constitution cannot be amended by the Parliament has been sharply questioned by several BJP leaders including Kiren Rijiju during his tenure as the union Law Minister. He took a contrary stand by stating that the basic structure could be altered by the Parliament and very shockingly even the Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankar upheld the supremacy of the Parliament for changing any aspect of the Constitution including its basic structure. Such advocacy on their part meant the dismantling of the very Constitution itself.

Apprehensions That Change of Constitution Meant Scrapping Reservation Facilities

All those examples are cited to show that all those who are controlling the State apparatus for the last ten years are engaged in trampling upon the Constitution even as they have no hesitation in celebrating the Constitution Day. The duality of the wilful violation of the Constitution and at the same time waxing eloquent about its status as a holy book by none other than Prime Minister Modi exposes the malafide intent.

It is quite extraordinary that such malafide intent was understood by people when several BJP leaders who are contesting elections as party’s candidate for the Lok Sabha told publicly that Modi on assuming office as Prime Minister for a third term by winning 400 plus seats would change the Constitution. Earlier it has been mentioned that in 2017 BJP leader Ananta Hegde stated that Modi regime would change the Constitution. He did it again in 2024 and other BJP leaders such as Lallu Singh, Arun Govil, Jyoti Mirdha, all contesting 2024 Lok Sabha elections, made statements that Constitution would be changed after Modi gets third term as Prime Minister. Such statements disturbed Dalits, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and they deeply felt that the change of Constitution might lead to abrogation of reservation facilities meant for them. Muslims, described by Modi as infiltrators, worried that the change of Constitution might lead to scrapping of the provisions therein according them the status of equal citizens regardless of the faith they pursue.

As such apprehensions became a national narrative BJP’s top leaders became anxious that party’s electoral prospects would be adversely affected by it. Therefore, none other Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari had to issue public statements, on several occasions, that the Constitution would not be tampered with and reservation facilities would continue. Amit Shah never known to be a defender of secularism went out of the way to state that even the word “secular” in the Preamble of the Constitution would not be removed.

But such assurances were of no avail. People’s apprehensions that Modi regime in its third term would change the Constitution persisted and got deepened. Leaders of the opposition such as Rahul Gandhi of Congress, Sharad Pawar of Nationalist Congress Party and others while addressing the election rallies very convincingly asserted that Modi regime would finish the Constitution which guarantees the rights to the poor, Dalits and OBCs.

Vast sections of the Indian population who revere Ambedkar as the architect of the Constitution and whose photograph adorns the walls of their houses across India, got deeply worried that change of the Constitution would mean an affront to Ambedkar who drafted it for liberating them from their social and economic bondage. It is indeed remarkable that people have come forward to make the issue of saving the Constitution an electoral issue and they have very successfully done so.

How President K R Narayanan Saved the Constitution

It may be noted that Modi regime is not the first BJP regime widely believed to give a relook at the whole Constitution. It was done earlier by Atala Bihari Vajpayee who as Prime Minister, heading the BJD-led coalition Government, wanted to review the Constitution. That time President of India K R Narayanan sensing the danger to the Constitution from such a review acted as per the oath he took, among others, “to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution”. On the occasion of the golden jubilee celebrations of our Republic in 2000, he, in his speech dealt with the issue of the review of the Constitution and very sharply asked if the Constitution has failed us or we have failed the Constriction. Those utterances while stirring the whole country had a desired impact on Vajpayee who instead of reviewing the Constitution by appointing a Commission decided to review the working of the Constitution.

People Are Now in the Forefront to Save the Constitution

That was how Narayanan as the occupant of the highest office of the Republic acted to save the Constitution and twenty-four years later it is people who are mobilising themselves to save the Constitution by making it a major electoral issue.

This means “We the people” who gave the Constitution to the country after constituting it into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR and DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC are now spearheading the movement to save it and they by exercising their right to vote will do so.

(Author: S N Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to President of India K R Narayanan)