The Congress on Sunday condemned the remarks made by BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde that the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) intends to win 400 seats to change the Indian Constitution. Both Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi said Mr. Hegde had revealed the hidden agenda of the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
In a post on social media platform X, Mr. Kharge said the Narendra Modi government, the BJP and the RSS secretly desire to impose a dictatorship, whereby they would impose their “Manuvaadi mindset” on the people of India and snatch away the rights of the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC).
“There will be no Elections, or at the most, just sham elections. Independence of institutions shall be curtailed. Freedom of expression shall be bulldozed. The RSS and the BJP will destroy our secular fabric and unity in diversity,” Mr. Kharge said, and maintained that justice, equality and liberty were the strong pillars of the Constitution and any change in these principles would be an insult to the India envisioned by Babasaheb Ambedkar and the founders of the Constitution.
Mr. Gandhi, in a social media post, said the ultimate goal of Mr. Modi and the BJP was to destroy the Constitution. “They hate justice, equality, civil rights and democracy. By dividing the society, enslaving the media, trammelling the right to freedom of expression and crippling independent institutions, they want to turn India’s great democracy into a narrow dictatorship by conspiring to eliminate the opposition,” Mr. Gandhi said. “Every soldier of the Constitution, especially Dalits, tribals, backward and minorities, wake up, raise your voice - INDIA is with you,” he added.
Mr. Gandhi added that by dividing society, enslaving the media, curbing the freedom of expression and crippling independent institutions, the BJP wants to turn India’s great democracy into a narrow dictatorship by conspiring to eliminate the Opposition.
