The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The Lok Sabha witnessed a pitched argument between the Union defence minister Rajnath Singh and first-time MP Priyanka Gandhi in the ongoing debate on the 75th anniversary of the Indian constitution on Friday (December 13).
In her maiden speech as the newly-elected MP from Wayanad, the Congress leader alleged that the constitution gave Indians a “suraksha kawach (safety shield)” to sustain its model of unity in diversity but was now being violated by those in power by sowing seeds of suspicion and fear.
The senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, on the other hand, hit out at the Congress for violating the constitution’s spirit in its previous regimes, citing the imposition of Emergency and recounting the number of times the Congress invoked President’s Rule in states, while extolling the Narendra Modi government for empowering the constitution by instituting progressive laws for vulnerable groups like women, marginalised communities, and the poor.
Singh initiated the discussion by saying that the Indian constitution represented “India’s civilisational values”. “Some people consider our constitution as colonial and some others say it is borrowed. Some claim that one party gave it. The fact is that our constitution is an expression of our civilisational values. It carries the legacy of our freedom struggle.”
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“Our constitution enables a person from a poor family to become prime minister or president. This was ignored after independence but our government is committed to it. We have broken colonial shackles and brought new penal laws,” he said, adding that the poor received “pucca houses, free treatment, free ration, tap water, and toilets” during the Modi regime. He also spoke about how the government was working for “women-led development” and passed the Naari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam.
“Our government gave constitutional status to the OBC Commission. We have also brought EWS quota. All these are concrete expressions of our constitutional values. We also implemented the Constitution in a state where it was not applicable. People there have voted in large numbers and the election was violence-free,” the minister said.
Singh stressed that respecting the constitution does not only mean talking about its provisions of “adhikar (rights)” but also “kartavya (duties and responsibilities)” and that Indian civilisational values have taught the BJP of propagating the idea of duties.
“In the original copy of our constitution, in Part III, where the fundamental rights are discussed, there is a depiction of Lord Ram, Sita and Lakshman. Ajanta Caves paintings and the lotus are also depicted. The latter depicts coming out of centuries of slavery…” he said.
While Singh acknowledged the role of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and other Congress leaders in playing a significant role in formulating the Indian constitution, he also asserted that there were people who played an important role from outside the Constituent Assembly.
“There were also people who were not members of the Constituent Assembly whose legacy is part of the constitution. We should remember that Pandit [Madan Mohan] Malaviya, Sardar Patel, Bhagat Singh and Veer Savarkar have also contributed to its ethos.”
“Dr Syama Prasad Mookerji believed that the constitution should be a result of collective ethos and consensus. In 1944, the constitution of the Hindustan State contained the views of many leaders. It said that the state should have religious freedom. It also gave each citizen the right to protect his or her culture. The state was supposed to be secular. This was being said by those who were termed communal by the Congress,” he said.
“Dr Mookerji was very inspired by the document. He wanted a strong centre and advocated a democratic constitution. But such details are never mentioned… One party tried to hijack and appropriate the constitution… All these things have been concealed. Our constitution is not the gift of a party but belongs to the people of India,” he said.
Singh recalled former Supreme Court Justice H.R. Khanna and said how his dissenting judgement in ADM Jabalpur vs Shivkant Shukla case cost him the position of chief justice of India, while trying to attack “authoritarian tendencies” of the Congress governments in the past
“He was not willing to cede to government anyone’s right to life and to move court. He had to pay a price for it,” Singh said.
“I see that many Opposition leaders are moving around with a copy of the constitution in their pocket. They have learnt this from childhood. They have seen the constitution being kept in the pocket over generations in their family. But BJP places the constitution on its forehead,” the senior BJP leader said.
Responding to him, however, Gandhi asked why women should wait for another 10 years to get the benefits of the Naari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. “Why can’t it be implemented now? Why do you not implement it now?” she asked.
She said that the government should know that the Indian Constitution is “Bharat ka Samvidhan (India’s constitution)” and not “Sangh ka Vidhaan (RSS’s legislation)”.
“Our Constitution is a shield of protection, a shield of justice,” she said, adding that it gave strength to people to raise its voice against the government. “So many governments have been ousted by people in India because of their highhandedness. This was the power of India’s Constitution,” she said.
She added that the government’s praising and invoking the Constitution is a result of the BJP’s poor show in the Lok Sabha polls, where she said people of India showed the ruling party its place for not merely violating the Constitution at every stage of its governance.
“If not for LS poll results, they (BJP) would have begun changing the Constitution. Truth is BJP now talks of the Constitution as they got to know in LS polls that people are protecting it,” she said, pressing on how the BJP has launched a series of communally violent incidents to divide the country.
“This government is working to weaken the reservation policy through lateral entry and privatisation. Had the Lok Sabha election results not come as they have, the government would have started the work on changing the Constitution,” Gandhi said.
“The truth is that they are chanting ‘constitution’ because they realised that the people of this country will keep the Constitution alive,” Gandhi said.
“All responsibility rests upon Jawaharlal Nehru, why don’t you talk about the present… Agriculture laws are framed for powerful people… All airports, road, railway works are being given to one person. Government is favouring Adani… People used to believe that the constitution will protect them, but now they have lost trust,” she slammed the BJP, while recalling Nehru’s role in nation-building and giving a fillip to India’s manufacturing capabilities by founding big PSU, refineries and higher educational institutes like IITs and IIMs.
“There is palpable fear in the society and journalists, professors, farmers, activists, they are being attacked… Sometimes, it is I-T, ED who attacks them… A teacher in Uttar Pradesh was named anti-national,” she said.
“When the entire opposition called for a caste-based census, they talked about ‘cattle’ and ‘magalsutra’,” she said.
She said that the nature of fear is such that those who spread fear are themselves scared all the time. “Such is the nature of fear. Even those who instill fear are also afraid. They are afraid to even debate, give reply in the parliament… In the last 15 days that I have been in the House, the prime minister has not attended the sessions for more than 10 mins.”
“Our history bears evidence that cowards have not ruled India for a long time. The constitution ensures that cowards don’t remain in power,” she said, as she ended her speech by saying “Satyamev Jayate (Truth alone wins)”.