New Delhi:

The BJP will never change the Preamble of the Indian Constitution or end reservation, Union Minister Rajnath Singh said in an exclusive interview with NDTV. Mr Singh said that the Congress had changed the Preamble in 1976, but is now trying to unnecessarily target the BJP and make it a poll issue.

“In 1976, the first time a change was made to the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. And that was done by Indira Gandhi,” Mr Singh told NDTV.

“And our constituent assembly was then of the consensus that amendments can be made to the Constitution as required. Congress and other political parties have done this a lot. But there is no question of making changes in the preamble. But they did it, and are now trying to blame us. The BJP does not even think about it,” he added.

Rajnath Singh’s remarks come after claims by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that the BJP will “tear up and throw away” the Constitution if it retains power. Some other Congress functionaries had expressed apprehensions that the BJP may drop the word “secularism” from the Preamble of the Constitution.

Mr Singh also said that the ruling party has no plans of ending caste-based reservation, but will never give reservation based on religion.

“Why would we end reservation? This country needs reservation for OBC, ST. They (Opposition) are the ones talking about giving reservations on the basis of religion. But we say that in no situation will we give religion-based reservation as the Constitution does not allow it,” the Defence Minister said.

The BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is hoping to win their third ongoing term. Six of the seven phases of voting for the Lok Sabha elections have already been held, with results to be announced on June 4 after the final round of voting on June 1.

New Delhi:

The BJP government will never change the Constitution or end reservation, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, accusing the Congress of creating “fear psychosis” and resorting to spreading misinformation for “vote bank” politics.

In an interview with PTI, Mr Singh blasted the Congress for spreading “canards” that the BJP will change the Constitution if it returns to power and especially asserted that there was no question of changing the Preamble of the Constitution.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been alleging that the BJP will “tear up and throw away” the Constitution if it retains power. Some other Congress functionaries had expressed apprehensions that the BJP may drop the word “secularism” from the Preamble of the Constitution.

“Congress brought constitutional amendments 80 times. They changed the Preamble during the Emergency,” the Defence Minister said.

“The BJP will never change the Constitution. Constitution makers never imagined that there would be changes in the Preamble. You (Congress) only acted to hurt the core idea of the Constitution,” Mr Singh said.

“There is no question of changing the Preamble of the Constitution. They changed it and now they are making baseless allegations against us,” he added.

The Preamble to the Constitution of India presents the principles of the Constitution. The 42nd Amendment in 1976 changed the description of India from a “sovereign democratic republic” to a “sovereign socialist secular democratic republic”.

“They (Congress) are trying to get peoples’ support by instilling fear among the citizens,” Singh said.

“I would suggest that they should try to get people’s support by creating confidence and not by instilling fears. Electoral campaigns should be based on facts,” he said.

On Friday, Mr Gandhi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and the RSS are attacking India’s democracy continuously and want to “destroy” the country’s Constitution.

“The Congress is creating fear psychosis” and resorting to spreading misinformation for “vote bank politics”, the Defence Minister said.

On the issue of reservation also, he alleged that the Congress is misleading the nation.

“The Congress is trying to mislead people. There will not be any end to reservation. They are making false allegations against us,” Mr Singh said.

The Congress has asked BJP leaders to clear the party’s stance on whether it would remove the 50 per cent cap on reservation for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes.

“We will not tinker with the reservation at all,” Mr Singh said, when asked about the Congress’ call to clarify on the 50 per cent cap.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A video is doing rounds on social media (here and here) showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a public gathering on the constitution with a claim that he said, “I will replace the old constitution with one based on Manusmriti, which not even Baba Saheb Ambedkar himself could abolish.”

Let’s verify the claim made in the post.

Claim: PM Modi stated, “I will change the old constitution to make a constitution with Manusmriti which even Baba Saheb Ambedkar himself cannot end.”

Fact: In the original video, PM Modi stated “Concerning the Constitution, you should accept it, and mark these words of Modi, even if Babasaheb Ambedkar himself were to appear, he wouldn’t be able to annul the Constitution. Our Constitution is the Geeta, Ramayana, Bible, and Quran for the government.”

Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.

On performing a reverse image search using the keyframes of the video, we found media articles featuring an image of PM Modi in the same attire discussing this speech. We discovered that he delivered this speech at an election rally in Rajasthan’s Barmer on April 12, 2024.

Furthermore, contrary to the claim made in the viral post, media reports indicated that PM Modi said that the Constitution is everything to the government, and even Babasaheb Ambedkar cannot abolish it.

Upon further research, we located the full video of the speech on PM Modi’s official YouTube channel. In it, PM Modi stated, “Regarding the Constitution, you should accept it, and take note of these words of Modi, even if Babasaheb Ambedkar himself were to appear, he wouldn’t be able to abolish the Constitution. Our Constitution is akin to the Geeta, Ramayana, Bible, and Quran for the (BJP) government.”

Following this statement, he proceeded to criticize the INDIA alliance and the Congress manifesto. The video was edited from the time frame 34:28 to 34:46 and then shared.

To sum up, PM Modi did not mention implementing Manusmriti by changing the Constitution.

(This story was originally published by Factly, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective.)

The BJP stamped out any speculation about a tweak in Constitution and distanced itself from its MP Ananth Kumar Hegde’s remarks about a change in the founding document if the party comes back to power with two-thirds majority.

“MP Ananth Kumar Hegde’s remarks on the Constitution are his personal views and do not reflect the party’s stance. @BJP4India reaffirms our unwavering commitment to uphold the nation’s Constitution and will ask for an explanation from Hegde regarding his comments,” the BJP posted on X just hours after its MP made the comments.

MP Shri Ananth Kumar Hegde’s remarks on the Constitution are his personal views and do not reflect the party’s stance. @BJP4India reaffirms our unwavering commitment to uphold the nation’s Constitution and will ask for an explanation from Shri Hegde regarding his comments.

— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) March 10, 2024

The BJP needs a two-thirds majority in both Houses of Parliament to amend the Constitution and “set right distortions and unnecessary additions made to it by the Congress”, Mr Hedge had said earlier today.

“If the Constitution has to be amended – the Congress fundamentally distorted the Constitution by forcefully filling unnecessary things in it, especially by bringing in laws that were aimed at suppressing the Hindu society – if all of this has to be changed, it is not possible with this (current) majority.

“If we think it can be done as Congress is not there in Lok Sabha and PM Modi has a two-thirds majority in Lok Sabha, and keep quiet, it is not possible,” he was quoted saying by news agency PTI.

Mr Hegde, the six-time Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka, further said that the party would also need to win more than 20 states for this.

The MP also cited the case of Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which he said was passed in the Lok Sabha and later in Rajya Sabha “with effort”. But several state governments did not approve it, and hence it could not be implemented, he pointed out.

However, this is not the first time that Mr Hegde has made such comments.

In 2017, Mr Hegde, the then Union Minister of State for Skill Development, courted controversy for his comments about changing the Constitution.

He subsequently apologised in the Lok Sabha but maintained his statement was distorted.

(With PTI inputs)

New Delhi:

Parliamentarians will be welcomed into the new Parliament building tomorrow with a special hamper. The special session of Parliament began today at the old premises and will move to the revamped complex tomorrow.

The hamper comprises a jute bag containing a copy of the Constitution, a stamp, and a commemorative coin. The names of the MPs are inscribed on the jute bags.

Parliament proceedings will move to the new building tomorrow. The old building has witnessed some historic events, including the adoption of the Constitution. It was completed in 1927 and is now 96 years old. Over the years, it was found to be inadequate for present-day requirements.

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tributes to “every brick” of the old building in his speech in Lok Sabha and said that the MPs will enter the new building with “new hope and confidence”.

The new Parliament building was inaugurated by PM Modi this May.

The new complex can comfortably seat 888 members in the Lok Sabha chamber and 300 in the Rajya Sabha chamber. For a joint sitting of both the Houses, 1,280 MPs can be accommodated in the Lok Sabha chamber.

The triangular-shaped four-storeyed building has a built-up area of 64,500 square metres. It has three main gates – Gyan Dwar, Shakti Dwar, and Karma Dwar – and separate entrances for VIPs, MPs, and visitors.