Bhubaneswar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been the master orator politician. The PM’s USP has been that he in a much nuanced manner, but sharply, takes a swipe at his adversaries. And at times, he even goes quite blunt in his attack.
The Lok Sabha witnessed another such fiery show in the winter session, when replying to the debate on the 75th year of adoption of Constitution of India, PM Modi did make a rapid fire attack on the Congress party and the Nehru – Gandhi family.
PM Modi began his reply to the debate in a sedate tone, gradually shifted gears quite subtly by stating that “Unity is the soul of the Constitution,” and went on to say that “it is very unfortunate that people with slavery mind state, who are against the ‘unity theme’ of the Constitution are stirring poison in the society to divide and rule the country.
The subtle attack by PM Modi on ‘unity breakers’ is seen as an attack on Gandhi Scion Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Jiski Jitni Abadi, Usko Utna Haq’ call, which means reservation as per population, and his raking up of caste based census.
Minutes later PM Modi went into top gear and listed out the instances of how Congress from 1951 to till date has hurt the Constitution’s letter and spirit.
MODI’S TOP GEAR ATTACK
- FIRST AMENDMENT ACT, 1951: This Amendment Act made changes to Article 19(2), which deals with reasonable restrictions on the freedom of Fundamental Rights of Speech and Expression.
- The amendment aimed at clarifying and broadening the scope of permissible restrictions on free speech to include matters related to public order, security of the state, and relations with foreign countries.
- PM Modi attacked former PM on amending the Constitition, despite not being an elected govt.
- TWENTY FOURTH AMENDMENT: On 15th November 1971, this Amendment Act was passed. The objective of this amendment is to reverse the Supreme Court’s decision in the I.C. Golak Nath vs The state of Punjab, which declares that Parliament in no way restricts Fundamental Rights.
- 25th YEARS OF CONSTITUTION 1975: The Constitution celebrated its 25th year in 1975. As this is the year when emergency was imposed in the nation by the then PM Indira Gandhi, PM Modi Saturday took a swipe at Congress and Gandhi family over ‘trampling’ of constitution.
- SHAH BAANO CASE 1985: Picking the common thread of the Congress governments and its adventurism with the spirit of Constitution, PM Modi recalled that case of Shah Baano, where the Supreme Court ruled that a Muslim woman has the right to seek maintenance from her divorced husband under the section 125 of Criminal Procedure Code and appealed for bringing Uniform Civil Code.
- The then Rajiv Gandhi led Congress govt has passed the Muslim Women’s (Right to protection on divorce) Act 1986 to made the Section 125 of CrPC inapplicable on Muslim women.
- PM Modi attacked Congress on amending the Constitution for what he called vote bank politics.
- PM Modi, in his unsparing attack on Nehru-Gandhi family Saturday, attacked the then Congress President Sonia Gandhi for heading the NAC (national Advisory Council) that become the apex policy formulation body over that of PM Manmohan Singh.
- In the same vein, PM Modi attacked Rahul Gandhi for his act of tearing out the ordinance passed by Cabinet.
- PM mocked at Rahul Gandhi for disrespecting the Constitition, which bestows supreme power on Cabinet.
- The PM took a major swipe at Rahul Gandhi, as on every occasion (since 2024 elections) the congress leader is seen in public functions showing a pocket copy book of Constitution.
THE POLITCAL SHOW
On his reply to the debate on 75th year of Constitution day, the PM listed out the Congress list of amendments to Constitution in big way to deflate the Congress’ oft attack on BJP and PM Modi of amending the constitution. The amending of constitution has been a big issue in Lok Sabha 2024 polls, and the poll results also saw BJP losing a substantial chunk of SC/ST seats that costed it from attaining simple majority on its own.
In his reply today, the PM portrayed the 55 year of Congress rule versus his 11-year rule and showcased the amendments his govt undertook in the Constitution versus the amendments by the Congress govt. The PM then listed NDA Amendments
- Article 370
- CAA 2019
- 103rd Constitutional Amendment introducing 10% quota for economically weaker sections
- The PM listed the NDA amendemnts to highlight how the amendments were meant for the cause of Nation, whereas in case of Congress they were aimed at keeping power or strengthening the vote bank politics.
The PM highlighted his govt’s strong adherence to Unity theme of nation, and listed the following endeavours.
- One Nation, One Tax
- One Nation, One Ration
- One Nation, One Subscription et al.
