Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Accusing the Congress of creating “fear psychosis” and resorting to spreading misinformation for “vote bank politics”, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that the BJP government will never change the Constitution or end reservation. The Minister lambasted Congress for spreading "canards" that the BJP will change the Constitution if it returns to power and especially asserted that there was no question of changing the Preamble of the Constitution.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has alleged that the BJP will “tear up and throw away” the Constitution if the party returns to power again in 2024. Some other Congress functionaries had expressed apprehensions that the BJP may drop the word "secularism" from the Preamble of the Constitution.
Congress changed Preamble during Emergency: Rajnath Singh
"Congress brought constitutional amendments 80 times. They changed the Preamble during the Emergency," the Minister said.
"The BJP will never change the Constitution. Constitution makers never imagined that there would be changes in the Preamble. You (Congress) only acted to hurt the core idea of the Constitution. There is no question of changing the Preamble of the Constitution. They changed it and now they are making baseless allegations against us," he added.
In the 42nd Amendment in 1976 during Emergency, the then Indira Gandhi government changed the description of India from a "sovereign democratic republic" to a "sovereign socialist secular democratic republic".
The Defence Minister alleged that the Congress was trying to get peoples' support by instilling fear among the citizens.
"I would suggest that they should try to get people's support by creating confidence and not by instilling fears. Electoral campaigns should be based on facts," he said.
"The Congress is creating fear psychosis" and resorting to spreading misinformation for "vote bank politics", the defence minister added.
Rajnath on reservation
Reacting to the issue of reservation, he alleged that the Congress was misleading the nation and there will not be an end to reservation under the BJP rule.
"The Congress is trying to mislead people. There will not be any end to reservation. They are making false allegations against us," Singh said.
The Congress has asked BJP leaders to clear the party's stance on whether it would remove the 50 per cent cap on reservation for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes.
"We will not tinker with the reservation at all," Singh said, when asked about the Congress' call to clarify on the 50 per cent cap.
(With PTI inputs)
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