Using the discussion on the Constitution to hit back at the Congress, the government on Friday invoked the Emergency to underline how B R Ambedkar had the “foresight to visualise a situation where the vesting of all powers in a single person could enable that person to subvert institutions”. The government also sought to allay fears over a rethink on reservation and the continuance of the word “secular” in the Constitution. Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said that the government was “willing to sit with everybody” and “discuss with everybody” because it had “nothing to hide, nothing to fear, nothing to worry”. “There is no threat to the Constitution, no emergency, no censorship, no arrest of Opposition leaders, no supersession of judges. Everything in this country is transparent. There is no question of rethinking on reservation. That has been made very clear,” Naidu said in a speech that lasted over an hour. Pointing out that Ambedkar had said not “to lay their liberties at the feet of even a great man or a woman, or to trust him with power which enables him to subvert their institutions”, Naidu said, “Just see his foresight. He visualised that a situation like that may come. He had cautioned people about what might happen to the country if we were to ever reach such a stage.” The reference handed Naidu an opportunity to invoke Emergency again, making a veiled reference to the Congress. “He (Ambedkar) has talked about what will happen if all rights are given to a single person and if everyone bows before that person, however important the person may be. We have experienced in the 1970s what happens then. That’s why we have a lot to learn from this subject. We should be aware,” Naidu said. The senior minister also targeted the critics of the government, saying that those who lost the elections and could not get people to reject Narendra Modi by calling him a “fascist” were now waiting for opportunities. They raise their heads whenever there is an election, to say “tolerance is in danger”. Taking a dig at the Congress, Naidu said that those who talk about the “personality cult” are forgetting that they themselves “cultivated the cult, built the cult, developed the cult and became the casualty of the cult”. In another jibe at the Opposition benches, Naidu said that “people who practice caste politics, people who practice communal politics, people who practice parochial politics call others anti-secular”.
