Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 16: The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Mallikarjun Kharge traded charges at each other during the debate on ‘Glorious Journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India’ in the upper house of Parliament on Monday.
Initiating the discussion, the union minister attacked the grand-old party and its leaders, including former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, and said the Constitutional amendments that they brought were to brazenly help the “family” and the “dynasty.”
She, however, had nothing new to add except repeating the charges the Prime Minster Narendra Modi hurled at the Congress and the former prime ministers during his reply to the debate in the Lok Sabha on Saturday.
Slamming the Congress on enforcing Emergency, Ms Sitharaman said, “On December 18, 1976, the then-president gave an accent to the 42nd Constitutional Amendment act. During the Emergency when the term of Lok Sabha was extended without proper justification. In the extended term, when the entire Opposition was put to jail then came the Constitutional amendment.”
She added: “That was a total invalidated process. Only five members opposed the bill in the Lok Sabha. There was no one in Rajya Sabha to oppose it. The amendments were not about strengthening democracy but protecting those in power,” the Finance Minister said.
Ms Sitharaman accused the Congress of making several amendments to the Constitution to silence the critics and curb free speech and expression. She said the grand old party’s record of curtailing freedom of speech did not confine to Mrs Indira Gandhi and referred to the first Constitutional amendment in 1951.
Ms Sitharaman further said the economic policies of the previous Congress governments for about 50 years did not strengthen the Indian economy. She also termed the Congress party as “anti-women” for not passing the Women’s Reservation Bill under pressure of its coalition partners.
In a swipe at Sitharaman over her attack on Nehru, Kharge underlined that the union minister was herself graduated from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Mr Kharge said while Sitharaman might be an “economic expert,” her deeds were not good.
“I have to tell them that I also know how to read. I have studied at municipality school. She (Nirmala Sitharaman) studied at Jawaharlal Nehru University. It is certain that her English will be good, her Hindi will be good, but her deeds are not good,” Kharge said. Accusing the BJP of only abusing the Gandhi family, Kharge said “those who hated the tricolour, Ashok Chakra and the Constitution” were today giving lessons on the Constitution.
“Those people who hate the national flag, those who hate our ‘Ashok Chakra’, those who hate the Constitution… such people are trying to teach us. When the Constitution was made, these people burned it. They torched effigies of Babasaheb Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi at Ramleela Maidan (in Delhi) the day the Constitution was adopted,” the Congress president said.
The Rajya Sabha has convened for a two-day special debate to mark the 75th anniversary of the Constitution on December 16. It will debate on the issue on Monday and Tuesday. Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said time would not be a constraint and as many speakers willing to speak would be accommodated by extending the duration of the discussion.
The Congress chief also slammed the Prime Minister for showing apathy towards the violence-torn Manipur. He wondered that the Prime Minister had not had the time to assess the situation in Manipur for the past year and a half, since violence started in the eastern border State. “Violence and unrest is continuing in Manipur but Modi ji did not get the time for one-and-a-half years to assess the situation there,” he said.
“The Prime Minister travels everywhere within the country and outside but he has no time to visit Manipur, even when violence continues there,” Mr Kharge said, questioning PM Modi’s silence on the issue. Ethnic violence broke out in Manipur on May 3 last year after a tribal solidarity march was taken out in the hill districts to protest against the majority Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. Since then, more than 220 people, including members of both the Kuki and the Meitei communities and security personnel, have been killed in the continuing violence.
The Congress MP Randeep Singh Surjewala highlights the three concerns for India – communalism, autocracy and economic inequality. “Babasaheb said that when people start singing praises and idolising one person, it is a sign of autocracy,” Mr Surjewala said. He speaks how the Modi government had failed to double farm income, protect people from COVID, stem communalism and naxalism and close the wealth inequality gap since British era
“We must ask if the Constitution has failed us or have we failed them? It is a collective failure by all of us to uphold the dreams of our forefathers. Have we delivered on social justice? What political justice is there where elected governments are toppled by money power?” Independent MP Kapil Sibal asked.
“Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru wanted a German or British scholar to draft the Constitution, But Mahatma Gandhi chose Dr B R Ambedkar as the drafting committee’s Chairman. Congress ensured Babasaheb did not get a seat in Bombay; it was Jogendra Nath Mandal’s efforts which helped Babasaheb’s inclusion in the Constituent Assembly from Bengal in 1946. Congress has not left any occasion to insult Babasaheb,” BJP MP Brij Lal said. He highlighted Babasaheb’s concern on Pt. Nehru’s focus on protecting Muslims asking if other communities did not need this protection.
