"All of us wanted Preamble of the Constitution to remain intact, but in 1976...": Rajnath Singh takes swipe at Congress

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that Congress changed the ‘aatma’ (Preamble) of the Constitution in 1976 while reacting to the allegations of BJP changing the Constitution if it comes back to power for the third time. 

“The maximum number of amendments in the Constitution has been done by them (Congress)... We all wanted that there should be no changes made in the Preamble of the Constitution, but the Congress Govt made a change to it in 1976 when Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister...” the Union minister said. 

The BJP government will never change the Constitution or end reservation, the defence minister had said earlier and accused Congress of creating “fear psychosis” and resorting to spreading misinformation for “vote bank” politics. 

The 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976, added the words socialist and secular to the Preamble and changed the words unity of the nation to unity and integrity of the nation. The Act was enacted during the Emergency (June 25, 1975 – March 21, 1977) by the Indian National Congress government headed by Indira Gandhi. The 42nd Amendment is regarded as the most controversial constitutional amendment in history. This amendment brought about the most widespread changes to the Constitution in its history. 

Earlier, in an exclusive interview with India Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed opposition’s claim of changing the Constitution ‘lie’ and asserted that the question that should be asked is who first messed with the Constitution in this country. “Pandit Nehru did it,” he said, adding “The first amendment he (Nehru) brought in the Constitution was to restrict freedom of speech, which means it was against democracy as well as the Constitution.” 

The Prime Minister said the second amendment was brought by Nehru’s daughter (Indira Gandhi). “She was the Prime Minister. And what did she do? The court gave a judgment that you cannot remain a member of Parliament, so she overturned the court’s judgment. There was a movement in the country, so she imposed an Emergency and closed all the newspapers.” 

After that, her son (Rajiv Gandhi) came and overturned the Supreme Court’s judgement in the Shah Bano’s case. “He changed the Constitution. Then he brought laws that were about restrictions on media. The opposition became a little stronger across the country. The media also started becoming vibrant. Everybody came out saying that we will not let emergency come again, out of fear he had to withdraw it,” he said.   

The BJP’s top leader, who is spearheading the party’s campaign, said the time of those people doing such dirty acts for the Constitution is over and that is why “I tell people boldly that as long as Modi is alive, the basic sentiment of the Constituent Assembly is that there will be no reservation on the basis of religion.” 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had also dismissed the Opposition’s claims that the BJP wants 400 seats to amend the Constitution. Shah said that they had the mandate for the last 10 years to make changes in the Constitution but never did. 

Ian interview with ANI, Shah said, “We have had the mandate to change the Constitution for the last 10 years, but we never did that. What do you think Rahul Baba and company would say, and the country will believe it?”  

He asserted that they want to win 400 seats to bring stability, protect the borders, and make India the third-largest economy in the world.