The party would also need to come to power in more than 20 states for this, the six-time Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka said….reports Asian Lite News
Six years since Anantkumar Hegde said the BJP would change the Constitution to do away with the word “secular” in its preamble, the BJP MP exhorted voters to ensure a two-thirds majority for the party in Lok Sabha to amend the country’s founding document.
The BJP needs a two-thirds majority in both Houses of Parliament to amend the Constitution and “set right distortions and unnecessary additions made to it by the Congress”, Hedge said, going on to explain the numbers required to amend the preamble of the Constitution.
The party would also need to come to power in more than 20 states for this, the six-time Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka said.
“If the Constitution has to be amended – the Congress fundamentally distorted the Constitution by forcefully filling unnecessary things in it, especially by bringing in laws that were aimed at suppressing the Hindu society – if all of this has to be changed, it is not possible with this (current) majority. If we think it can be done as Congress is not there in Lok Sabha and PM Modi has a two-thirds majority in Lok Sabha, and keep quiet, it is not possible,” he said, as he stressed the BJP’s need to have a two-thirds majority in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, and also win two-thirds of the states, to bring changes in the Constitution.
The NDA winning more than 400 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls would eventually help muster a similar majority in the Rajya Sabha and come to power in two-thirds of the states, he said.
Pointing out that in the recent Rajya Sabha polls in Karnataka, three seats were won by the Congress, while BJP got only one, the MP said that if Congress’s number increases, any Constitutional amendment made by the BJP government would pass the Rajya Sabha.
Citing the example of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, he said that it was passed in the Lok Sabha and later in the Rajya Sabha “with effort”. But several state governments did not approve it, and hence it could not be implemented, he pointed out.
“Now government plans to implement it through an amendment. If not, the law and order will go out of hands and anti-nationals will have a free run,” he said.
“If we win more than 400 Lok Sabha seats, we can win the assembly seats. Because of this more than 20 states will come to us, and we will have a two-thirds majority among the state governments,” he said.
In 2017, Mr Hegde, the then Union Minister of State for Skill Development, courted controversy for his comments about changing the Constitution.
Seeking to end the controversy that stalled parliamentary proceedings at the time, Mr Hegde subsequently apologised in the Lok Sabha after a nudge by the Speaker but maintained his statement was distorted.
Reacting to Mr Hegde’s statement today, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and state Congress chief DK Shivakumar said this showed that the BJP is anti-Constitution.
“Let him do it, amend the Constitution… this shows that the BJP government (at the Centre) and the BJP MP are against the Constitution given by Babasaheb Ambedkar. Let him get it stamped by the Prime Minister,” he said.
Every party wants me, says Paswan
Former Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan asserted that every party wants him to be on its side, indicating he could tilt towards the one that offered a better bargain.
Paswan, an NDA ally, has been getting feelers from the ‘Mahagathbandhan’, the opposition coalition in Bihar.
Addressing a rally in the Sahebanj assembly segment, Chirag dropped ample hints that he was weighing his options and could tilt towards the side with a better bargain.
“I can see the posse of media persons here who are anxious to know whom Chirag Paswan is aligned with. I wish to tell them that Chirag Paswan is aligned only with the people of Bihar,” said the young leader, who has often sworn by his loyalty towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi, likening him to Lord Ram and himself to Lord Hanuman.
“Every party, every coalition wants Chirag Paswan to be on its side,” he said, adding that this was because tpeople were enamored with his “Bihar first Bihari first” vision that seeks to pull the state out of chronic backwardness.
In his speech, he made yet another attempt to project himself as true heir to his late father Ram Vilas Paswan, calling himself “sher ka beta”.
He refrained from mentioning by name bete noires in the NDA, Nitish Kumar, the Bihar chief minister who heads the JD(U), and Union minister, uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, who split the late leader’s party.
The young leader, however, spoke at length about the “conspiracies” he had to face, “aimed at breaking my home, my family and my party, though I have demonstrated that Chirag Paswan cannot be cowed down”.
The rally at Sahebanj under the Vaishali Lok Sabha seat, which the LJP won in the last two elections, is being seen as a fresh attempt by Paswan to claim his father’s legacy, after having earlier declared that the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), a splinter group that he now heads, will contest Hajipur, which the late leader had represented several times.
Predictably, the nephew’s offensive has not got down well with Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) headed by Paras, who is the sitting MP from Hajipur, and has made it clear that he will seek re-election from the seat.
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