Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been claiming that they will win more than 400 (370 BJP + 30 allies) seats in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. This is not based on any psephological analysis but purely propagated for political reasons.
Justifying this ‘char sau par’ (400+) slogan, Karnataka BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde explained the need for such a figure. As per him, the party intends to change the Constitution, for which two-thirds majority is needed. “Modi ji said that we need to secure more than 400 seats this time. Why 400? We currently have a 2/3 majority in the Lok Sabha, but we lack the same in the Rajya Sabha where our majority is lesser. Additionally, we lack the required majority in the state governments,” Hegde said. “If we are to make amendments to the Constitution, like the ones Congress made, twisting the fundamental principles of the Constitution and introducing provisions and laws that oppressed Hindus, then this majority won’t suffice.”
The BJP distanced itself from this statement of the sitting MP, as if they do not really approve it. There are some reports saying he may even be denied a ticket as a consequence. Whether he is denied a ticket on this ground or not, one thing is certain – the BJP has no aversion to such statements. This MP had said the same thing in 2017, when he was a Union minister in the BJP government. He was duly given a ticket in the 2019 general elections by the BJP.
“The statement of the BJP MP that he needs 400 seats to change the constitution is a public declaration of the hidden agenda of Narendra Modi and his ‘Sangh parivar’. The ultimate goal of Narendra Modi and the BJP is to destroy Baba Saheb’s Constitution. They hate justice, equality, civil rights and democracy,” Rahul Gandhi wrote in Hindi on X (formally Twitter).
The former Congress president also alleged that “by dividing society, restricting freedom of expression and crippling independent institutions, they want to turn India’s great democracy into a narrow dictatorship by conspiring to eliminate the opposition”.
The BJP has a twin track strategy to undermine the democratic values of our Constitution. Its parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), opposed the Constitution right from the beginning. After the Indian Constitution came into being, the RSS’s unofficial mouthpiece Organiser wrote, “…In our constitution, There is no mention of that unique constitutional development in ancient bharat. To this day his laws as enunciated in the manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing.”
Also read: Take Nothing for Granted, Not Even the Constitution
When the BJP came to power as part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 1998, one of the first things it did was to appoint a commission to review the Constitution. However, the Venkatchaliah Commission’s report could not be undertaken for implementation as there was a severe opposition to any tampering with our Constitution.
Subsequently, when K. Sudarshan became the chief of the RSS in 2000, he frankly stated that the Indian Constitution is based on Western values so it should be replaced by one based on Indian holy books. Sudarshan said, “The Constitution was of no use for the people of the country as it was based on the Government of India Act of 1935 …We need not fight shy of altering the constitution completely…”
Since 2014, when the BJP returned to power, the preamble of the cCnstitution and the use of ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ have remained a point of contention.
Not too long ago, chief of prime minister’s economic advisory council, Vivek Debroy, had also called for a new Constitution. Then too, the prime minister had officially distanced himself from the comments.
While voices of major stature from within the BJP as well as state officials keep making these controversial statements, officially the BJP or the BJP-led government makes a show of distancing itself from such utterances.
Meanwhile, as the BJP completes a decade of being in power, what has it done to the core value of the Indian Constitution – democracy and equality?
As far as democracy is concerned, all the pillars of democratic state, constitutional institutions like the ED, CBI, IT, EC all are being controlled by the executive and the executive itself is restricted to one person.
The judiciary at various levels has been weakened by various mechanisms. There are numerous examples of this; one such being the detention of activist Umar Khaild and refusal to hear his bail plea in the last four years.
Freedom of expression is down in the dumps. With the mainstream media under the belt of pro-government corporate, it is the voice of the government which is broadcast through major TV channels and newspapers. The independent voices have limited space available to articulate their opinions.
Freedom of expression, the major pillar of a democratic society has gone for a toss.
Freedom of Religion has been declining with many international indices. ‘India as a country of particular concern,’ is the label for India as per US freedom of religion watchdog. As per V-Dem, India ranked 104 on its democracy index, between Niger and Ivory Coast!
However, this isn’t unique to the BJP-RSS combine. Every ‘religious nationalist’ outfit is averse to democratic freedoms and they resort to tuning their constitutions in such a direction. India is simply joining this club of ‘democracy suppressors’ like Pakistan or Sri Lanka.
Not long ago, it was Lal Krishna Advani who had said that India is living through an undeclared emergency. All the components of democracy have been stifled through foot soldiers of Hindu nationalists and state officials while the government merrily looks the other way. It is a clear signal to these elements that this regime grants full impunity to violations of democratic rights of minorities and weaker sections of society.
Ram Puniyani is president of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism.
