Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Anant Kumar Hegde stirred up a fresh controversy stating the right-wing party needs over 400 seats in order to change the Constitution of India.
His remarks came in the wake of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Hegde, speaking in Haveri district, said that to attain total control over the Constitution of India, the BJP should win over 400 seats in the Indian Parliament.
Although the BJP has a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha, similar dominance is lacking in the Rajya Sabha. “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,” he said.
Devious agenda: Congress
Reacting to Hegde’s statements, the Indian National Congress, on Sunday, March 10, accused the BJP and the RSS of having a “hidden and devious” agenda.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed the BJP MP’s reported remark was a public declaration of the “hidden intentions” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and their “Sangh Parivar”.
He said that the “ultimate goal of Narendra Modi and the BJP is to destroy Baba Saheb’s Constitution.”
“They hate justice, equality, civil rights and democracy. By dividing the society, enslaving the media, trammelling the right to 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,” he alleged in a post in Hindi on X.
Party chief Mallikarjun Kharge said the BJP MP’s statement “yet again exposes Modi-RSS’ devious agenda to impose dictatorship”.
“The Modi Government, BJP and RSS secretly desire to impose a dictatorship, whereby they will impose their ‘Manuvaadi mindset’ on the people of India and snatch away the rights of SCs, STs and OBCs,” he said in a post on X.
“There will be NO Elections, or at the most, just sham elections. Independence of institutions shall be curtailed. Freedom of expression shall be bulldozed. The RSS and the BJP will destroy our secular fabric and unity in diversity,” Kharge alleged and asserted that the Congress would not allow these “ulterior motives” of the ‘Sangh Parivar’ to succeed.
He alleged that such repeated calls by the BJP-RSS, from time to time were a “direct assault” on the “unquestionable ethos of sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic espoused by our Constitution makers”.
“Justice, Equality, and Liberty are the strong pillars of the Constitution and any change in these principles would be an insult to the India envisioned by Babasaheb Dr Ambedkar and our revered founders,” the Congress chief said.
“It is the solemn responsibility of every Indian to protect our democracy and the Constitution,” he said on X using the hashtag “Samvidhan Bachao BJP Hatao”.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the BJP MP, a former Union Minister, and “Modi’s favourite” Anantkumar Hegde has only revealed what was already known. “The goal of the BJP and RSS is to overturn Babasaheb Ambedkar’a Constitution,” he alleged.
“All the prime minister’s rhetoric about crossing 400 seats is geared towards the goal of dismantling the Constitution — the last protector of the rights of India’s people, especially of Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, and religious minorities,” he said.
“If we have to save Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution and preserve Indian democracy, we must vote the Modi Sarkar out,” Ramesh said in a post on X.
(With PTI inputs)
