Congress president and the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha today shredded into pieces the “untruths” of the ruling party leaders including the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
He demanded an apology from Prime Minister Modi to the people of the country for distorting facts and speaking “untruths” about Nehru in the parliament.
“Modi distorted facts about Nehur’s letters to CMs for which he should apologise to the people of the country. This is my demand. He must apologise in both the houses”, Kharge said, while remarking, “this is very much on record and you still distort and defame Nehru”
“Democracy cannot be run by dictatorship”, Kharge remarked while speaking in the Rajya Sabha on the debate over 75 Years of the adoption of the Constitution of India. He pointed out, thanks to the Constitution of the country and the great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr BR Ambedkar, Sardar Patel and others, India proved Winston Churchill wrong as he had predicted chaos and anarchy after the British left.
The Congress president accused the BJP of being against the reservations, saying that is the reason the party was opposed to the caste census in the country.
Kharge started his speech on a celebratory note recalling the great victory of Indian armed forces over Pakistan on this day in 1971. “Our brave leader Indira Gandhi, the Iron Lady, divided Pakistan into two parts and created Bangladesh, taking one lakh prisoners of war and raised the prestige of the nation across the globe”, he said, asking the today’s government to “at least try to save the minorities there (in Bangladesh)”.
Countering the Finance Minister Sitharaman on the issue of socialism, he pointed out, it was part of the basic structure of the Constitution of India, which had been upheld by the Supreme Court of India also. “Are they in favour of or against the constitution?” he asked about BJP while referring to its opposition to socialism, which is part of the Preamble of the constitution.
Lashing out at the BJP and its ideological ancestors, he said, they were always against the Constitution and wanted it to be based on the Manusmriti. He said, they were against the tricolor and the Ashok Chakra also. He said, when the constitution was adopted the Jan Sangh (BJP’s original avatar) leaders had burnt the effigies of Gandhi, Nehru and Ambedkar in the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. He disclosed that the national tricolor was unfurled on the RSS headquarters as late as on December 7, 2002 only after the court directive.
Kharge displayed a copy of the Manusmriti with bookmarks, which he offered to present to the Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar for his reference.
In a sharp jibe at the BJP leaders, he observed, “I don’t know when they had a change of heart”, he remarked, while adding, “may be after 2024, when the people of the county ensured their change of heart”.
He quoted the RSS mouthpiece Organiser editorial of November 30, 1949, in which it (the RSS) had opposed the constitution, as it did not carry anything from the Manusmriti. He said some of the members of the Constituent Assembly, owing allegiance to RSS, had even opposed the universal franchise also.
Praising the constitution, the Congress president said, it has empowered the people of the country without any discrimination. But, he warned, it was still under threat and it was to be preserved for the future generations.
Asking the Prime Minister to better spell out what he did during the last 11 years instead of crying hoarse that nothing happened in 55 years (of Congress rule), he remarked, “Prime Minister either lives in the past or in the imaginary world. It looks like that present is not in his dictionary”. “It would have been better if he would have said what he did in 11 years that strengthened the constitution”, he observed.
Referring to the Prime Minister’s statement in the Lok Sabha, Kharge said, he (the PM) misled the house by saying that the amendments to the constitution between 1947 and 1952 were “unconstitutional” since there was no elected government then.
Referring to the first amendment which was brought through an ordinance in 1951, the Congress president clarified it was done only to preserve the reservations of the SCs/STs/BCs as these had been set aside by the Supreme Court of India. Moreover, he quoted a letter from Sardar Patel to Nehru, in which he had suggested that the amendment was the only remedy.
The Congress president also took a dig at the people who switched over to the BJP from the Congress and other opposition parties, saying Union Home Minister Amit Shah had got a big “washing machine” in which people go and come out “completely washed”.
He also referred to the Prime Minister’s continued indifference towards Manipur, saying, while he (the PM) was moving around the whole world, he had not been able to take out some time to visit Manipur.
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