Training his guns on the Congress on issues ranging from the Uniform Civil Code to Constitution amendments to its stand on reservation, Union Home Minister Amit Shah told Rajya Sabha Tuesday that every state with a BJP government would bring in the UCC the way it was done in Uttarakhand. Replying to the two-day discussion in the House on the ‘Glorious Journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India’, Shah accused the Congress of “appeasement” politics: “Under Article 44, our Constitution talks about the Uniform Civil Code. It did not become a reality because (Jawaharlal) Nehru brought in the Muslim Personal Law. I ask the Congress: In a secular state, shouldn’t there be one law for all communities? They gave Muslim Personal Law to Muslims, the rest that was common law came to be known as Hindu Code Bill.” The Congress, he said, chose different personal laws but a common criminal code. “If you really want Muslim Personal Law, then have it in full. Why is the Sharia not applicable in criminal law? Will you chop off the hands of someone who commits theft?” he said. The Congress, he said, was talking about increasing the quantum of reservation not for the SCs, STs and OBCs, but to give the increased quotas to Muslims, and it had done so in two states. “They have called for reservation beyond 50 per cent. Two states have reservation on religious grounds. It is anti-Constitution because the Constitution prohibits it. They don’t want the welfare of OBCs. They want to increase reservation to give it to Muslims… give reservation on grounds of religion,” he said. Accusing the Congress of being anti-OBC, he said the Kaka Kalelkar Commission report was sent to a library instead of being sent to the Cabinet. He said the Mandal Commission report was also shelved for 10 years, and OBC reservation was announced only after the Congress was voted out of power. He cited Nehru as having written to B C Roy that while the exit of C Rajagopalachari could have some adverse impact on the Cabinet, “our ministry wouldn’t be weakened by Ambedkar leaving the Cabinet”. Shah slammed the Congress for its criticism of VD Savarkar and said nationalism and courage should not be seen from the lens of a party and ideology. “One hundred and forty crore people call Savarkar Veer (brave). I want to place it on record here that from 1847 to 1947, the only person to get two life sentences in one life was Savarkar. He jumped into the sea for the sake of freedom when captured. Such a brave family as the Savarkars – two brothers were in the same jail for 10 years without seeing each other – does not exist,” he said. Shah quoted Indira Gandhi on Savarkar’s death in 1966 saying he was a great man and a great revolutionary. Recalling that she also saluted Savarkar in a letter on his 100th birth anniversary, he urged Congress leaders to at least learn from her. “I appeal to all political parties and people today not to associate nationalism and courage with religion, ideology or party. The brave are brave, whichever party or ideology they belong to,” he said. Keeping the focus of his attack on the Congress, especially the Nehru-Gandhi family, Shah wondered whether Article 1 of the Constitution permitted the Indira Gandhi government to cede the island of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka. And referring to the now-repealed Article that dealt with Jammu and Kashmir, he said: “Article 35A was brought by a Presidential Order without Parliament approving it. You consider not just your party but the Constitution as the property of one family.” Referring to the discussion in the Constituent Assembly on the name of the country, Shah said that when Seth Govind Das advocated Bharat as the name, Nehru said the need was not to look to the past but to the future. “So, it became India that is Bharat. When you see with foreign spectacles, you won’t understand. That is why they have named their alliance INDIA,” he said. Targeting Rahul Gandhi, who is Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, for repeatedly accusing the BJP of trying to change the Constitution, Shah said the 54-year-old who is still called a young leader should know that the Constitution itself allows changes through Article 368. Both the Congress and the BJP, he said, amended the Constitution while in power, but the question was the intent behind the amendments. In what seemed similar to the charges against Congress made earlier by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Shah recalled the 1st, 24th, 39th and 42nd Constitution amendment Acts passed under Congress governments, saying these were all done to curtail people’s rights, weaken institutions and perpetuate the power of the government of the day. “They had to pass laws. Some in Congress who had the courage began to remain absent so that the quorum wasn’t complete. So, they made an amendment to ensure that quorum wasn’t needed. They also increased the period of President’s Rule,” he said, referring to the Emergency. He said lakhs of people were thrown in jail during the Emergency and there was press censorship. He recalled that The Indian Express published a blank editorial because of the censorship. He said as a young man during the Emergency, he got to know that Kishore Kumar’s songs had been banned and it affected the popular Binaca Geetmala programme on the radio. He described the amendments to the Constitution by the Modi government as pro-people changes – to bring in GST, give constitutional status to OBC Commission, provide 10 per cent EWS quota, and pass the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam to pave the way for women’s reservation in Parliament and Assemblies. “They talk about federal structure. We amended the Constitution in 2021 to give state governments the right to take a call on which caste was backward,” he said. He praised the Modi government for bringing the new education policy, abrogating Article 370 on Jammu and Kashmir, and bringing in three new penal laws that “Indianised” the system of justice. “We also brought a law to penalise triple talaq. It was the Supreme Court that ruled that Shah Bano should get justice and that instant triple talaq be abolished. You did not accept it, but we did,” he said. Shah also took a dig at the Opposition over its criticism of EVMs. “They talk about EVM, and 24 times the Supreme Court rejected the petitions. In Maharashtra, they lost badly, and on the same day they won Jharkhand. In Maharashtra, it was flawed, but in Jharkhand they took oath. So, EVM is right at one place and wrong at another.” “In Maharashtra, a journalist got a copy of the Constitution they were distributing. It turned out to be blank inside. The introduction of the copy of the Constitution you carry says that Indira Gandhi attacked the Constitution,” he said.
