BJP will never change the preamble, the caveat remains: Rajnath Singh

The BJP government will never change the Constitution or end reservations, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said, accusing the Congress of creating a “fear psychosis” and resorting to spreading misinformation for “vote bank” politics.

In an interview with PTI, Singh slammed the Congress for spreading “canards” that the BJP will change the Constitution if it comes back to power, and particularly alleged that there was no question of changing the preamble of the Constitution.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has claimed that the BJP will “tear up and throw away” the Constitution if it retains power. Some other Congress functionaries had expressed fears that the BJP may drop the word ‘secularism’ from the preamble of the Constitution.

“Congress has passed constitutional amendments eighty times. During the emergency, they changed the preamble,” the defense minister said.

“The BJP will never change the Constitution. The makers of the Constitution never imagined that changes would occur in the preamble. You (Congress) have only acted to damage the core idea of ​​the Constitution,” Singh said.

“There is no question of changing the preamble of the Constitution. They changed it and now they are making baseless accusations against us,” he added.

The Preamble of the Constitution of India presents the principles of the Constitution. The 42nd Amendment of 1976 changed the definition of India from a “sovereign democratic republic” to a “sovereign socialist secular democratic republic”.

“They (Congress) are trying to get people’s support by creating fear among citizens,” Singh said.

“I would suggest that they should try to gain popular support by building trust and not by spreading fear. Election campaigns must be based on facts,” he said.

On Friday, Gandhi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and the RSS are continuously attacking Indian democracy and want to ‘destroy’ the country’s constitution.

“The Congress is creating a fear psychosis” and is resorting to spreading disinformation for “vote bank politics,” the Defense Secretary said.

Also on the reservation issue, he alleged that Congress is misleading the nation.

“Congress is trying to mislead the people. There is no end to the reservation. They are making false allegations against us,” Singh said.

The Congress has asked the BJP leaders to make clear the party’s stand on whether it would do away with the 50 per cent limit on reservations 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 Congress’ call for clarity on the 50 per cent limit.

First print: May 5, 2024 | 10:18 am IST