Patna: Dismissing the Opposition’s charge that the Narendra Modi government will change the country’s Constitution if voted back to power, former Union minister and incumbent from Bihar’s Patliputra constituency Ram Kripal Yadav said it can’t happen as a “son of the backward community and a daughter of adivasis are protecting it”.
He was referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is an OBC, and President Droupadi Murmu, who is from the tribal community.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav had earlier this week alleged that the BJP would bring in a “dictatorial” regime and could rewrite the Constitution if voted to power. Lalu said the BJP had a problem with the existing Constitution, the backward class, tribals and Dalits.
Incidentally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi rebutted the RJD leader’s accusation Tuesday, stating even “Babasaheb Ambedkar could not change the Constitution”.
The controversy around the Constitution picked up pace after a couple of BJP leaders, who are contesting the Lok Sabha polls, made statements regarding the need to change it.
The first to call for a “rewriting” was six-time MP from Uttar Kannada Ananth Kumar Hegde, who said the BJP must win 400 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha to effect this. The Congress, he alleged, had changed the Constitution to “oppress Hindus”.
Pushed to fire-fight, the BJP dropped Hegde from Uttara Kannada, replacing him with Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri.
However, Ram Kripal Yadav Yadav told ThePrint that all this talk was pure “nonsense”.
Yadav is up against the RJD chief’s daughter Misa Bharti in Patna district’s Patliputra, having defeated her twice since 2014. Bharti has been a member of the Rajya Sabha since 2016.
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‘RJD candidate doesn’t belong to Patliputra’
Without naming Misa Bharti, Yadav told ThePrint that the crucial difference between his candidature and hers was his 24/7 availability. “I am present in moments of grief and happiness for the people of my constituency.”
Yadav, who was once close to Lalu, chided Misa for not being available for the people. “The margin between the votes she got and mine (in 2019) was only 40,000. What has she done for them despite her party being in power for 18 months till the other day?” he asked.
He added: “Tejashwi Yadav was deputy chief minister and Leader of the Opposition party in the state. How many times did he visit the Patliputra constituency to meet people and solve their problems? How many people does he meet daily?”
Denied ticket, quit RJD
Yadav left the RJD before the 2014 general elections after being denied a ticket from Patliputra as Lalu Yadav preferred his daughter Misa’s candidature. He had won the Patna Lok Sabha constituency for the RJD in 2004 before it was split into Patliputra and Patna Sahib.
Yadav said he has not broken off all ties with Lalu Yadav’s family, but alleged the RJD has transformed into a party of “family justice”, far removed from its founding principle of “social justice”.
“Workers like me have helped RJD ascend to power in the state but it is now public how they have treated us. Lalu Prasad Yadav was and will be my elder brother and the relationship with his family will last till I am alive but we don’t talk to each other because of our political and principle differences,” Yadav told ThePrint.
Opening up about his exit from the party in 2014, Yadav said he was asked why he wanted the ticket from Patliputra as he was already a Rajya Sabha MP at that time. “If I was denied a ticket in Lok Sabha because I was a Rajya Sabha MP, why isn’t the same yardstick applied to RJD’s candidate from Patliputra,” Yadav said in a dig at his opponent Misa Bharti.
(Edited Tikli Basu)