PM Modi finished his speech.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla adjourned the proceedings of the lower house till Monday.
Journalism of Courage
Parliament Winter Session Highlights: Taking part in the Constitution debate in the Lok Sabha on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Constitutional amendments brought by his government weren’t done to tighten grip on power, in contrast with the Congress. He said Nehru-Gandhi family had “made a habit” of amending India’s Constitution as it suited their interests, starting with the country’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru. This comment, along with Modi’s remarks on the Emergency imposed by former PM Indira Gandhi, caused uproar in the Opposition benches. Modi also said that the Constitution had brought India “so far”, proving naysayers wrong. He added that the Constitution was instrumental in uplifting women, and every initiative of his government has women at the centre.
Earlier, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi has begun his speech on Constitution and he quoted Savarkar as saying that Manusmriti is the law in India. Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, meanwhile, initiated the debate on Constitution on its second day and said India not only provides legal protection to minorities but also has provision for affirmative action. In an apparent jibe at the Opposition, Rijiju said, “While India has given equal voting rights to all, some claim that minorities have no rights in the country.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be speaking on behalf of the Centre today. On Friday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had initiated the special debate on Constitution, slamming the Congress party for trying to ‘hijack and appropriate’ the document.
What happened yesterday? Friday was an action-packed day in Lok Sabha with intense debate on the Constitution. TMC MP Mahua Moitra targeted the former CJI saying he made it a point to state that the Supreme Court is not meant to act like a political opposition and remarked that former SC judge B H Loya died “long before his time”. Moitra’s remarks triggered an uproar in the Lower House with BJP member Nishikant Dubey raising objection.
PM Modi finished his speech.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla adjourned the proceedings of the lower house till Monday.
PM Modi says India can't be stopped from becoming a developed nation if every Indian fulfills the Basic Duties.
Citizen or government, everyone should fulfill their basic duties.
PM Modi talks of some new pledges
Speaking in Parliament, PM Modi says youngsters with no family ties to politics need to be brought in.
All political parties should work to bring in fresh blood with no political background, says PM Modi.
Says that's why he mentioned this in his Red Fort address.
PM Modi says many districts were labelled as 'backward' so good officers wouldn't want to serve in those districts.
PM Modi says his government came up with the idea of aspirational districts.
Aspirational districts are now nearing the top cities of the state.
Speaking in Parliament, PM Modi says 80 per cent of Indians were deprived of clean water.
Questions if the Constitution prevented them from taking any action.
Says his government took action to provide clean water.
Says many people hadn't even visited the doorsteps of banks.
Blames Congress for this.
Says 50 crore poor now have bank accounts.
PM Modi says the constitutional amendments brought by his party to give more power to women.
When the country was moving ahead to support giving reservation to women, an ally of the opposition entered the well and tore up papers, stalling the process for 40 years.
Babasaheb's Constitution didn't reach J&K due to the wall of Article 370. We wanted it to reach every corner of the country.
Speaking in Parliament, PM Modi says Congress power-hungry.
After coming to power in 2014, we also made Constitutional amendments.
Our Constitutional amendments with full faith and respect for Constitution.
The OBC community was demanding Constitutional recognition to the OBC Commission. We are proud of it, says PM Modi.
PM Modi in Parliament says one family has encroached upon Congress.
Destroying the spirit of the Constitution flows in the veins of Congress.
We ran a government for 13 days in the past. If we didn't respect the spirit of the Constitution, we could tried to join hands with others, but we didn't.
In 1998, there was an NDA government.
There was a vote, and because the Vajpayee government respected the Constitution they didn't do anything unconstitutional and chose to resign instead.
Congress using Constitution as tool to frighten people, says PM Modi.
Says the party didn't even accept the constitution of its own party.
12 State Congress Committees had agreed to support Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
According to the party Constitution, Patel should have becomed the PM.
Nehru didn't have support of any Congress Committee.
PM questions how those who don't follow the constitution of their own party, how will they follow the nation's constitution?
Modi says want to talk about Uniform Civil Code (UCC) as this is within ambit of Constituent Assembly.
Says the Assembly decided after long discussions that the government that comes power should implement UCC.
Ambedkar batted strongly for ending religion-based personal laws.
The Supreme Court, too, has called for and directed government to bring in UCC.
That's why we are working hard to implement a Secular Civil Code.
It was decided that reservation won't be given on basis of religion, but Congress gave religion-based reservation to appease its vote bank, says PM
He adds that their plans have been jolted by court judgements.
BR Ambedkar had foresight and worried that no part of India should remain weak, says PM Modi.
Since Jawaharlal Nehru, reservation has been misused.
Nehru gave speeches, wrote letters, against reservation, says PM Modi.
Ambedkar stood for equity.
The sin of Congress is OBCs not getting reservation till the party lost power, else many people from the community would have been serving in top position currently, PM says.
PM Modi says the situation in J&K could have been avoided if Article 35 didn't exist, says PM Modi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks in the Lok Sabha during the discussion on the 'glorious journey of 75 years of the India Constitution', in the ongoing Winter session of Parliament, in New Delhi, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (PTI Photo)
PM Modi talks about the Shah Bano case and says when Rajiv Gandhi became PM, he sacrificed the spirit of Constitution, sided with extremists.
PM quotes a book saying Manmohan Singh said that he had to accept that the party chief is the centre of power.
Modi says this was the first time the Constitution was hurt with a extra-constitutional National Advisory Council being setup over and above the Constitutionally elected PM.
The Nehru-Gandhi family imposed Emergency to save their own chair, says PM Modi in Parliament.
They also brought in the 39th amendment, no one could challenge the election of President, V-P, and PM with retrospective effect, says Modi.
Thousands were jailed, the courts were hit, the idea of 'committed judiciary' was given a boost, says PM.
Prime Minister Narendra Nehru wrote a letter to CMs that if Constitution is a barrier, then Constitution needs to be amended.
There is an uproar in Parliament as he says this.
Congress got used to amending Constitution, hurting the spirit of Constitution, says PM Modi.
Referring to the Congress, PM Narendra Modi says the family has challenged the Constitution at every stage.
They attacked the Right to Free Speech.
They even made attempts to curb Right to Free Speech in Constituent Assembly but their attempts were thwarted.
When India celebrated 25 years of Constitution, Emergency was imposed and constitutional rights were curtailed, says PM Modi in Parliament.
Says the Congress will be remembered for its attempt to demean the Constitution and it won't be able to wash off the stain of imposing Emergency.
On the 50th anniversary, then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave a message of unity, and cooperation.
PM Modi in Parliament says GST played big role in uniting India.
Acknowledges the role of the past government and says his government got an opportunity to further the process.
Talks about One Nation, One Tax and government health card.
Article 370 was a roadblock to India's unity and hence we removed it.
Unity in the nation is our priority, he says.
PM Modi says unity in diversity is India's speciality, and that we celebrate diversity.
But some people seek to poison the diversity.
Article 370 was a roadblock to India's unity.
PM in Parliament says India will be a developed nation when India celebrates a century of Independence, and that Indians are motivated to contribute to make this a reality.
The members of the Constituent Assembly belonged to different geographical locations, PM said.
Modi quoted BR Ambedkar saying, how should the people be united to take a decision.
Matter of pride that India gave women voting rights from start, says PM.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi says India follows women-led development
It is a happy coincidence that a women is India's President.
The representation of women is rising, he says in Parliament.
Rajendra Prasad, independent India's first president, said constitutional framework was not new to India.
Babasaheb Ambedkar said it's not as if India unaware of democracy, says Modi.
The PM says there were 15 active women members in the Constituent Assembly.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi says India's constitution has brought India so far proving the naysayers wrong.
He thanked crores of Indians. He says the constitution makers didn't believe that democracy was born in India in 1950.
They believed in the thousands of years of heritage of the country
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said 75 years of Indian Constitution was a matter of pride and celebration.
He said it showed the foresight of the constitution makers.
Modi thanks other speakers that participated in the Constitution debate in Parliament.
The Lok Sabha turned into a battleground on Friday when Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde invoked a letter written by former prime minister Indira Gandhi praising V D Savarkar, sparking a fiery debate involving the treasury bench and Congress members.
Referring to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's critical comments earlier on Savarkar, Shinde questioned the Congress' repeated criticism of the freedom fighter.
Shinde read out from Indira Gandhi's letter, stating: "Veer Savarkar's daring defiance of the British Government has its own importance in the annals of our freedom movement. I wish success to the plans to celebrate the birth centenary of this remarkable son of India."
Shinde then posed a pointed question to Rahul Gandhi: "Was your grandmother, Indira Gandhi, also against the Constitution in praising Savarkar? We take pride in Savarkar ji and his contribution to the nation."
The remarks led to an uproar as Rahul Gandhi stood up, seeking to respond.
However, Shinde refused to yield, prompting Congress MPs to storm the Well of the House, demanding that Rahul Gandhi be allowed to speak.
Despite the chaos, Krishna Prasad Tenneti, who was in the Chair, ruled that Gandhi would be allowed to respond only after Shinde concluded his speech.
BJP MP Tejasvi Surya slammed the Congress in the Lok Sabha on Saturday, saying the "attackers" of the Constitution are posing as "champions" of the Constitution in a "hypocritical drama" that is going on for decades in the country.
Participating in a two-day debate in the Lower House on the "Glorious Journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India", the Bangalore South MP alleged that parties like the Congress consider India not as a civilisational state or a nation but "a mere hotchpotch union of states".
"For a very long time, a big hypocritical drama has been conducted in this country, where those who are the attackers of the Constitution have posed themselves as champions of the Constitution. This hypocrisy must be exposed. For a very long time, this hypocrisy has continued.
"The BJP is the protector of the Constitution and the protector of territorial integrity. Other political parties like the Congress consider India not as a civilisational state, not as a nation, but a mere hotchpotch union of states. This is an attack on the Constitution. It is this difference in the philosophy of approaching the nation and the Constitution that resulted in the Congress and its successive dynast prime ministers attacking not just the Constitution but the very soul of this country," he said.
Surya alleged that the insertion of the words "socialist" and "secular" in the Constitution was an attempt at making it rigid.
There is an imperative need for holding simultaneous elections for various reasons as polls have become expensive and time-consuming, according to the proposed bill being brought to implement the ambitious 'one nation, one election' plan.
According to the Constitution Amendment Bill listed for introduction in the Lok Sabha on Monday, the imposition of a Model Code of Conduct in several parts of the country that are poll-bound puts on hold the entire development programmes and causes disruption of normal public life.
Frequent poll code imposition also impacts the functioning of services and curtails the involvement of manpower from their core activities for deployment for prolonged periods for election duties, the 'Constitution (129th) Amendment Bill, 2024' underlined.
The bill seeks to insert a new article in the Constitution and amend three articles to put in place the mechanism to hold simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.
Congress MP Sukhdeo Bhagat on Saturday said his party and India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru strengthened the roots of democracy and the Constitution to the extent that a "tea-seller" could become the country's prime minister.
Participating in a debate on 75 years of the adoption of the Constitution, Bhagat hit back at Union minister Rajnath Singh claiming opposition leaders had seen their families keep the Constitution in their pockets for generations and said this was true as the most precious and important things were kept in pockets.
"Yesterday (Friday), ruling party people were attacking Nehru but I would like to tell the House that the Congress and Nehru strengthened the roots of democracy and the Constitution so much that a tea-seller is a prime minister now. The Congress strengthened the roots (of democracy)," the MP from Jharkhand's Lohardaga said.
Slamming the BJP, he claimed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-linked Organiser had said India would not accept the Tricolour and that three colours were inauspicious.
He also alleged that in 2000, then-RSS chief K Surdarshan had called for changing the Constitution.
DMK leader A Raja hit out at the BJP on Saturday, claiming that the ruling party would have changed the Constitution had the words "secular" and "socialist" not been added to the Preamble of the document during Emergency.
Participating in a debate on the Constitution in the Lok Sabha, Raja also dared the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to spell out the contribution of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Hindu Mahasabha to the making of the Constitution.
The former Union minister said democracy alone was assaulted when the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) was imposed during Emergency, but under the BJP-led government, the basic structure of the Constitution, codified by the Supreme Court in the Kesavananda Bharti case, is under attack.
"Democracy alone was assaulted during MISA, but in your regime, entire six elements (spelt out in the Kesavananda Bharati case), namely democracy, secularism, rule of law, equality, federalism, judicial impartiality, everything has gone," Raja said.
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