Attacking the BJP, she said there can not be a bigger joke than holding of the discussion by those “who never had faith in the Constitution nor had they participated in its drafting, are now swearing by it and are laying claim to it”.
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The Congress has persistently attacked the Modi government over the perceived “rising intolerance” in the country.
The house had special sittings for the past two days for celebrating “Constitution Day” as part of the 125th birth anniversary celebrations of Ambedkar.
Congress parliamentarian Shantaram Naik on Thursday said union Home Minister Rajnath Singh should be sacked from the central cabinet as he had “violated oath of office by questioning insertion of “secular” word in the Indian constitution”. On apprehensions that the government might try to alter the Constitution, for instance the use of terms like “secular”, Modi said, “Nobody can dare (such a course), as it will amount to suicide”.
He described Ambedkar as one of the great people of the country who helped draft such a “perfect constitution” which, after so many years, still fits the bill.
The government will establish “fresh contact” with the Congress once the party completes its internal discussion on the three issues of “their concerns” on which they made their position clear, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after Modi met Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for overlooking the legacy of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress on Friday said the attempt to enforce November 26 as the Constitution Day was a move by the government to “rewrite history”. “Pakistan was created for Muslims, thus, what remains is a Hindu Rashtra”, Sanjay Raut had then said.
Parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu said, “The nation knows who has subverted the Constitution for personal reason or who has amended it by putting people behind bars”.
She recalled that Nehru, at the Karachi session of the Congress in 1931, had brought in a resolution on fundamental rights and economic policy which was later adopted. “We already celebrate 26 January, which was the date given to us by Ambedkar”, said Ghulam Nabi Azad, leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha.
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Later, during her speech, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi alleged, “We have seen in the past few months, a total violation of the values of the Constitution”.
