In run-up to Phase 3 of Lok Sabha election, Constitution, reservation come on campaign frontburner

The Prime Minister then recounts his first visit to Parliament in 2014, when he had bowed in respect with his forehead touching the steps of Parliament — a reflection of the Constitution — and that in 2019 he had bowed before a copy of the Constitution in the central hall of Parliament after he was elected the leader of the NDA alliance.

On Tuesday, a day earlier, Modi’s main challenger Rahul Gandhi showed up at a Congress campaign rally in Bhind in Madhya Pradesh with a red pocket size edition of the Constitution. Holding the copy of the Constitution, Gandhi claimed the BJP, if voted to power again, would “tear apart” and “throw away” the Constitution which granted rights to the poor, Dalits, Scheduled Tribes and other backward classes.

The people wait at a polling station in Amravati (Image source: PTI)

Not to be left behind, Congress communication head Jairam Ramesh distributed copies of the pocket-size Constitution after a press conference at the AICC headquarters in Delhi Wednesday during which he argued that the “real intention” behind BJP’s “400 paar” slogan is to secure power to change the Constitution.

He said “samvidhan badlo” has been the demand of the RSS since 1949. Ramesh quoted B R Ambedkar as having said on November 25, 1949 in the Constituent Assembly that “it is because of the discipline of the Congress Party that the Drafting Committee was able to pilot the Constitution in the Assembly with the sure knowledge as to the fate of each article and each amendment” and that “the Congress Party is, therefore, entitled to all the credit for the smooth sailing of the Draft Constitution in the Assembly.”

Ramesh then went on to quote an article that he claimed was published in the RSS-linked publication ‘Organiser’ five days later on November 30, 1949 in which he claimed it was written that “the worst about the new Constitution of Bharat is that there is nothing Bharatiya about it.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at Himmatnagar in a chopper on Wednesday. (Express photo by Nirmal Harindran)

Not just Modi or Rahul, senior ministers and leaders of the BJP as well as veteran Opposition figures, including the likes of NCP (SP)’s Sharad Pawar, have all been invoking the Constitution to drive home their political point – that the rival side, if in power, will change the Constitution.

The arguments on both sides revolve around reservation and tap into insecurities and apprehensions across the caste divide — framed in the larger context of the Constitution which guarantees equality and reservation.

This primacy of the Constitution in campaign rhetoric comes after two phases of voting and with five more to go — perhaps a first after the 1977 elections post Emergency.

A woman, carrying her daughter, casts vote at a polling station in the border village of Zokhawthar in Mizoram’s Champhai district. (Reuters)

The sub-text is, of course, reservation. Prime Minister Modi has repeatedly argued that the Congress, if it comes to power, will “rob” OBCs of their reservation in order to give it to the Muslim minority.

Addressing a meeting in Banaskantha today, Modi, referring to Rahul, said “the Congress’s shahzada had (in 2019) proudly called the entire Modi community, the entire OBC community thieves… now in 2024… the Congress and the INDI alliance have entered the maidan with yet another lie…they show the Constitution, aarakshan lelenge… iska dar dikhate hai… Congress ki jamaat kaan kholkar sun le… this is Modi, till Modi is alive… I will not let you play the game of reservation of the basis of religion. The reservation which SC, ST, OBC and the poor in the general category have got… they have got in on the basis of the Constitution… with the blessings of Baba Saheb… usme rati bhar bi koi loot nahi sakta hai… If the Congress has the courage… Let them declare… it is my challenge.”

Voters on their way to a polling station in Darrang, Assam, during the second phase of Lok Sabha elections. (ANI)

The thrust of the Prime Minister’s argument is that the Congress, if voted to power, would carve out a quota for minorities — read Muslims — in the 27 per cent OBC quota.

“The Congress government in Karnataka declared all Muslim castes as OBC overnight and told them that you are the maalik (owner) of 27-percent now,” Modi had said in Agra some days ago. “Congress intends to play the same game in UP… OBCs will have to understand the game of Congress and SP. There are many OBC castes in UP, like Kurmi, Maurya, Kushwaha, Yadav, Jat, Gurjar, Rajbhar, Teli and Pal. This is their right. But they (the Congress) want to give it to their favourite vote bank,” he added.

The Congress and the opposition, on the other hand, argue that the ruling party wants to win more than 400 seats so that they can make changes in the Constitution and snatch away the reservation benefits of SC, ST and OBC as the RSS, the BJP’s ideological fountainhead, had always been opposed to reservations.

This is part of Rahul’s aggressive caste census pitch — aimed at the OBCs – framed as a warning about the threat of BJP changing the Constitution.