The Indian Constitution Has Always Been the Hurdle in the BJP's Path

On the eve of Diwali, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh carried a full page advertisement in many national and vernacular dailies, highlighting the lighting of more than 25 lakh diyas in Ayodhya along with the worship of ‘Mata Saryu amongst Vedic chants’.

I had posted the following on X:

Dear @PM0,you are the PM of a secular nation. Do you think it is morally and constitutionally correct to spend crores to advertise a Hindu festival? Will you do the same for Eid, Christmas, Buddha Jayanti? Remember the State has no religion.

But obviously the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh do not think so, especially after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s innings started in 2014.

Now in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, as the state prepares for the polls, the BJP has raised the slogan of ‘ghar ghar samvidhan (the constitution in every home)’.

This is nothing but sheer hypocrisy.

Thanks to the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the successful ‘save the constitution’ campaign by the INDIA bloc in the Lok Sabha election, the BJP is trying to turn the tables with this belated move which is not going to cut ice with the electorate of Maharashtra, much less Jharkhand.

Long before the BJP came into existence, nearly four decades ago, the Sangh Parivar has many times betrayed its uneasiness with the constitution. In fact, many of the sarsangchalaks of the RSS took a public stand for scrapping the constitution. They even opposed the first revolutionary legislation of the Nehru government for the upliftment of Indian women. The authors – Bipin Chandra, Mridula Mukherjee and Aditya Mukherjee – of India After Independence, write:

A major step step forward in this direction ( social position of women) was taken when the Hindu Code Bill was moved in Parliament in 1951. The bill faced sharp opposition from conservative sections of society, especially from Jan Sangh and other Hindu communal organisations.

The Bill had been moved by Dr B.R. Ambedkar in his capacity as the country’s first law minister.

The demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 was the biggest direct assault on the constitution after independence. How ironical that the person who instigated and provoked the kar sevaks to bring down the historical structure was awarded the Bharat Ratna three decades later.

On December 25, 1992, a few days after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, a press conference was held at the residence of a BJP member by two front-rank Swamis of the Parivar – Swami Muktanand and Swami Vamdeo Maharaj. They gave a call to reject the ‘anti-Hindu constitution’. “We have no faith in the country’s laws,” they said, along with the proclamation that “the sadhus are above the law of the land.” Indian citizenship law which considers all born in this country as its natural citizens is humbug, they appeared to claim.

Also read: On Election Eve, BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis Bows Down to Ambedkar and the Constitution

On January 1,1993 the Sangh Parivar published a ‘white paper’ labelling the constitution as ‘anti-Hindu’ and outlined the kind of polity that must be established.

In its foreword, Swami Hiranand, a leading light of the Parivar, wrote:

“The present Constitution is contrary to the country’s culture, character, circumstances, situation etc. It is foreign oriented…It has to be discarded completely as a matter of high priority…The damage done by two hundred years long rule of the British is negligible as compared to the harm done by our Constitution…the conspiracy to convert Bharat into India continues…in post- independence India, Hindustan and Vande Matram have been exterminated. Jana Gana Mana, a song to welcome George V, has become our national anthem.”

The RSS chief Rajendra Singh apparently agreed with the views expressed in the white paper, and wrote:

“All this shows that changes are needed in the constitution. A constitution more suited to the ethos and genius of this country should be adopted in the future.”

Murli Manohar Joshi, who was then the president of the BJP, demanded “a fresh look at the constitution.” The

The white paper condemned reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and backward classes and went to the extremely foul extent of calling the constitution “a pile of garbage” and “an enemy of the nation’s unity and integrity.”

Though the Vajpayee government (1998-2004) made attempts to alter the basic structure of the constitution, it failed to do so as there was a big hue and cry after it appointed a commission to go into the working of the constitution. Advised by the then president K.R. Narayanan, it inserted a clause in the terms of reference of the commission – the basic structure of the constitution will not be altered.

But the BJP governments, under both Vajpayee-Advani and Modi-Amit Shah, have found administrative means to bypass the constitution. This was perhaps foreseen by the chairman of the Drafting Committee. While introducing the draft constitution in the constituent assembly on November 4, 1948, Ambedkar had clearly spelt out:

“The form of the administration must be appropriate and in the same sense as the form of the constitution.”

A communal civil service cannot work a secular constitution. Ambedkar warned:

“It is perfectly possible to pervert the constitution without changing its form, by merely changing the form of the administration and to make it inconsistent and opposed to the spirit of the constitution.”

The then home minister Sardar Patel in a letter dated April 27, 1948 to prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru agreed with him:

“The service must be above party and we should ensure that political considerations, either in its recruitment or in its discipline and control, are reduced to the minimum.”

How far away have we travelled today from the path lit by the founding fathers of India’s constitution.

K.S. Sudarashan was appointed the sarsanghchalak of the RSS on March 10, 2000. Soon after taking over he declared that constitution of India should be scrapped, but added that the RSS did not expect the review committee to do this as it has been asked not to alter the basic structure of the constitution.This statement was made after the Vajpayee government, under public pressure and advice of president Narayan, had to assure that the Review, as stated above, will not cover the basic structure of the constitution.

At the annual Vijayadashmi speech at Nagpur, on October 7, and later at Agra, on October 15, he made highly provocative anti-constitution speeches:

“We need to have an Indian national church for the Indian Christians…Muslims and Christians must return to Hindu roots.”

With home minister L.K. Advani present in the latter meet, it was obvious that the RSS and Vajpayee government, to quote A.G. Noorani, acted in impressive concert.

This concert is the new norm. Since 2014 there have been many frontal assaults on the constitution by the RSS and BJP governments in the Union government and states where it is ruling. No questions are asked, no eyebrows are raised and the mainstream media does not even report many incidents of violations of the constitution – mixing religion with politics, lynchings, communalising the police, bureaucracy and even the judiciary. Hindu Rashtra has not been declared officially but the country’s administration under the Modi regime has become, as foreseen by Ambedkar, “inconsistent and opposed to the spirit of the constitution.”

Though the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ were added to the Preamble in 1976 by the 42nd amendment, the concept of secularism was always inherent in its provisions. As Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru reiterated on July 10, 1962:

“We have laid down in our constitution that India is a secular State. This does not mean irreligion. It means equal respects for all faiths and equal opportunities for those who profess any faith.”

Does the Hindutva (let’s not confuse it with Hinduism) ideology believe in equal respect for all faiths and equal opportunities for the minorities? Why are the minorities, especially Muslims, being treated as second class citizens by the BJP governments in the Union government and states? Why are they being denied equal opportunities in the parliament and legislatures? The BJP has no Muslim MP in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and hence no minister in the Cabinet. This is indeed shocking as this is the first time after independence that a ruling party in the Union government has no Muslim representative in parliament. It may not be against the letter of the constitution but certainly it is against its spirit, and the vision of the founding fathers who laboured tirelessly to bequeath us a document that saw Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and others, as equal citizens of India.

Before the ruling elite attempts to further damage the constitution, all civil, military and judicial services will do well to remember the two landmark judgements, the Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, in 1973, and S. R. Bommai v. Union of India in 1994. In the first judgment it is categorically stated, “India is a secular state in which there is no state religion” and, the second emphasises, “Secularism is part of basic structure of the constitution…encroachment of religion into the secular activities of the state is prohibited.”

Let these two historical judgments be the loadstar of all those who swear by the constitution and Baba Saheb Ambedkar. The latest observation of the Supreme Court, on October 21, that “secularism is an un-amendable and core part of the basic structure of the constitution,” is therefore very timely and appropriate.

Praveen Davar, a former Army officer, is a columnist and author of Freedom Struggle and Beyond.