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As BJP stokes fire over Shivakumar’s remarks about ‘changing Constitution’, Congress high command asks Karnataka leader to clarify

Kiren Rijiju said the remarks by a person "sitting on a Constitutional post" to change the Constitution to facilitate four per cent reservation for Muslims is unacceptable.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju tables Waqf Bill in Rajya Sabha (PTI)

As both Houses of Parliament saw adjournments Monday after BJP MPs created a ruckus over a purported remark by D K Shivakumar about “changing the Constitution”, the Congress high command asked the Karnataka deputy chief minister to issue a clarification.

As the Lok Sabha convened at 11 am, BJP members were on their feet, apparently raising the issue of reservation for Muslims in government contracts in Karnataka. When the House re-convened, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the remarks by a person “sitting on a Constitutional post” to change the Constitution to facilitate four per cent reservation for Muslims is unacceptable.

“One of the senior members of the Congress party, who is holding a constitutional post, has made a statement that they’re going to change the Constitution of India. He has stated that the Congress party will provide reservation to the Muslim community, and for that, they (Congress) will change the Constitution of India. This statement cannot be taken lightly,” said Rijiju in a veiled reference to Shivakumar.

As the issue seemed to be blowing out of proportion, AICC general secretary-in-charge for Karnataka Randeep Surjewala spoke to Shivakumar and asked him to clarify his stand on the purported statement by him, said sources in the party.

Amid the row, Shivakumar spoke to media persons and said that the BJP was “misquoting him”.

“I am a more sensible and senior politician than Mr (JP) Nadda. I have been in the Assembly for 36 years. I have basic common sense. I have casually said that there will be so many changes after various judgements. Whatever reservation has been given as per the quota for the backward classes. I have not said that we are going to change the Constitution. Whatever they are quoting is wrong. They are miscarrying it. We are a national party and know what the Constitution is. I will take a breach of privilege on this. They are misquoting it… On the basis of judgements, some Constitutions change. I have not referred to this issue,” said Shivakumar.

He claimed that the “media was not misquoting him but the BJP was”.

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“You see the record. I saw it right now… They are political people who try to misguide the country. Where have I said that I will change the Constitution? Every day their (BJP) graph is dipping,” he said.

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In a post on X, Shivakumar further said that he was not present in the Assembly when the discussion on the Bill providing 4 per cent reservation to Muslims in government contracts took place. He said he had never stated that the Constitution would be amended in any manner to give religion-based reservation.

Meanwhile, in Delhi, Surjewala said that the BJP and the government “forced an adjournment” in both Houses to “divert attention from the recovery of cash from the house of a Delhi High Court judge”.

“The string of it (cash recovery) is now reaching the doorsteps of the ruling dispensation. So, in order to douse that fire, an adjournment was forced in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. D K Shivakumar has been a legislator for the last 36 years and is a senior leader of Congress. He has already made his statement that a fake narrative is being attributed to him for manufacturing an adjournment in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha,” said the senior Congress MP.

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