The Samajwadi Party emerged as the third-largest winner in Uttar Pradesh, winning an unprecedented 37 seats, and party chief Akhilesh Yadav also credited the victory to people who voted to protect the Constitution, reservations and democracy.
One campaign slogan that seems to have worked for the opposition is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign slogan, in which he sought the support of over 400 people. The opposition parties stressed that his support could lead to changes in the constitution and undermine democracy.
The red-and-black jacketed Indian constitution has become the most powerful weapon in the Indian sphere in the backdrop of arrests of prominent opposition leaders such as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, and allegations of misappropriation by central agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department.
After the election results, Modi also welcomed the Constitution. At a meeting of the new parliamentarians on June 7, he bowed his head and touched the Constitution. In just three days, two key election figures had sent a crucial message that the Constitution is supreme.
This is why Constitution is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.
For the good of the country
Modi had dreamed of one day having his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule the country with an overwhelming majority of more than 400 votes. But his emphasis on an overwhelming majority was further contextualized by comments from several BJP lawmakers who argued that constitutional amendments require a majority.
It all seems to have started in March, when BJP MP and former Union minister Anantkumar Hegde suggested that the ruling party, after securing a two-thirds majority in the Rajya Sabha, would amend the constitution and repeal “unnecessary things” that the Indian National Congress had introduced to “oppress the Hindu community”.
Article 368 of the Constitution requires that amendments must be passed by a majority of the total membership of each House and by a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting in that House, followed by the assent of the President. In some cases, the approval of at least 50 percent of state assemblies is also required before the President can assent to the bill.
The BJP was quick to distance itself from Hegde, accusing him of “personal views” and ultimately dropping him as its candidate from Uttara Kannada.
But that hasn’t stopped the comments. On March 30, the BJP’s Jyoti Mirdha said the constitution needed to be amended “in the interest of the country”. In April, then BJP MP Lal Singh told a rally that the government needed a two-thirds majority in Parliament to “frame a new constitution”. His comments were in reference to Ambedkar Jayanti.
The Samajwadi Party was quick to notice the move and Yadav said the Lok Sabha elections wereRakshakThe Constitution and its “Bakshak(predator).
Singh lost by 54,567 votes to the Samajwadi Party’s Audesh Prasad in Faizabad, which includes Ayodhya, home to the newly built Ram temple, one of the BJP’s key election pillars.
Read also: The idea of a new constitution is very dangerous. India does not want a dictatorship.
To quote Ambedkar
Rahul Gandhi travelled around the country with a copy of the Constitution and took it with him to most of the election rallies he addressed.
In April, Mr Gandhi brandished the Constitution at an election rally in Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh to warn people against what he said were the BJP’s plans. He said that if the BJP returned to power at the Centre, it would “destroy” and “throw away” the Constitution, which gives rights to the poor, Dalits, Scheduled Tribes and other backward classes.
In May, he reassured people at two public rallies in Telangana that the Congress, with their support, would defend the Constitution at all costs, again brandishing a copy of the Constitution.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on May 18 attacked Gandhi for claiming that the Indian National Congress leader had a Chinese constitution. “The original copy of the Indian Constitution has a blue cover,” Sarma tweeted. Soon, several fact-checking organisations and X people proved the chief minister wrong.
Meanwhile, other Congress leaders, from Mallikarjun Kharge to Shashi Tharoor, have also stepped up their attacks on the BJP and the Rashtriya Sangh (RSS), accusing them of undermining the Constitution.
In response, several senior BJP leaders, including Modi, had to spend the rest of the campaign making it clear that the bill had no impact on the Constitution.
Addressing an election rally in Barmer on April 12, PM Modi cited BR Ambedkar to reassure the masses, saying, “The Constitution cannot be abrogated even by Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar himself.” But the damage seems to have already been done.
Character Arch
In India, the Constitution has undergone significant changes, especially in the last few years.
The movement formally emerged in December 2019 and spread from law school classrooms to the streets of the country, emerging as a focal point of protests against the Modi government’s decision to amend the citizenship law and plans for a nationwide National Register of Citizens.
At the time, Bhim Army commander Chandrashekhar Azad held up the statement in front of protesters gathered at Jama Masjid. Students and citizens read it out together in front of India Gate. And All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi read the preamble loud and clear to thousands in Hyderabad.
Once captured in the public eye, the Constitution has refused to go away ever since. In September 2022, when Rahul Gandhi set out to burnish his image, the Indian Pure Land March was also billed as a “journey to protect democracy and the Constitution.” In Mhow, Madhya Pradesh, Ambedkar’s birthplace, Gandhi “took an oath to protect the Constitution.”
The Constitution featured again in March this year as the climax of Gandhi’s India Tour, which he concluded in Mumbai with a reading of the Preamble.
With Azad winning from Nagina constituency in Uttar Pradesh and Owaisi retaining his Hyderabad seat, Gandhi and the opposition, as their chief constitutional campaigners, appear to have found a way out of the political wilderness where they had been exiled for nearly a decade.
(Editor: Ratan Priya)
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