Five ways in which Modi, BJP have undermined Constitution. 26 Nov celebration is a photo-op

Narendra Modi file photo | Praveen Jain, ThePrint

Glitzy event management and media pomp and pageantry are the Narendra Modi-led government’s unique skills. This year, on 26 November, India’s Constitution—the radical document that defines the identity of the nation-state born in 1947, an exceptionally brave and progressive blueprint for a modern India—completes 75 years of its existence. Predictably, the Modi regime has sprung into action, seizing the opportunity for its next big media spectacle. Seventy-five years of the Constitution will be “celebrated” in a joint session of Parliament in the Central Hall of the old Parliament building. 

The irony is unmissable. The Modi government scornfully shunned the same Central Hall last year when it moved into a showy new Parliament building. The original Central Hall was where India’s founders framed the Constitution, where the Constituent Assembly conducted its debates for over three years, crafting every article and every section through rigorous arguments and discussions. In this Central Hall, power passed from the British Crown to Independent India and India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru delivered his famous Tryst With Destiny speech on the eve of Independence on 14 August. 

The old Parliament witnessed a golden age: brilliant speakers from a range of parties ennobled the building with oratorical wizardry and argumentative firepower.  But Modi, true to form, wanted to reject all this history and wanted his very own Parliament, freed of any possible reminders of the Nehruvian age. A new Parliament has been built as a monument to Modi’s ego, but to celebrate the Constitution, the Modi government has been forced to return to the same hallowed Central Hall. 

Constitution in “New India”

There’s another irony here. Why are Modi and his supporters “celebrating” the Constitution when, for the last decade, the BJP’s social media army and functionaries have been at pains to suggest that a so-called “New India” was born in 2014? The narrative was spun that with the ascent of Modi, everything that happened between 1947 to 2014—even the years when BJP’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee served three terms as Prime Minister (BJP’s first PM)—was best forgotten. 

Doubtlessly, on 26 November, a range of disingenuous and pious declarations will be made about constitutional principles and BR Ambedkar, chairman of the Constitution’s drafting committee. But the Sangh Parivar’s “discovery” of the iconic and era-defining Ambedkar is very recent. 

For most of its existence, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), founded by the Telugu Brahmin doctor KB Hedgewar, and developed by its hardline Hindutva Sarsanghchalaks like MS Golwalkar and Balasaheb Deoras, had no time for Ambedkar’s radically anti-caste, egalitarian views. Ambedkar despised the Hindu caste hierarchy and called for its annihilation. He saw caste-oriented Hindu beliefs as a “diabolical contrivance to suppress and enslave humanity,” and was implacably opposed to overt religiosity in public life. The Sangh Parivar has only now rushed to claim Ambedkar in order to expand its footprint among Dalits. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Opposition slogan “Samvidhan khatre mein hain,” (the Constitution is in danger) caused massive losses for the BJP among Dalit voters. These voters feared that the BJP might amend Ambedkar’s progressive Constitution thus doing away with reservation or affirmative action for Dalits. In a cunning calculation to recoup those losses, Modi is celebrating the Constitution—the document whose spirit and values he has systematically destroyed in his decade in power.

As the government gets ready to celebrate the Constitution, the question must be asked: Has the Constitution been upheld in the last 10 years of Modi’s rule? No. Neither Modi, his government, nor his party, the BJP, has shown any respect for the spirit and soul of the Constitution over the last decade in power. Despite the photo-ops and media blitz that will no doubt take place on 26 November, here is a five-point chargesheet against the Modi regime for its resounding failure to uphold the Constitution.

1. The undermining of Parliament: The Constitution makes it clear that India is a parliamentary democracy where the government or executive is accountable and answerable to Parliament. Yet the Modi-led regime has tried to systematically undermine Parliament. There has been a deliberate and concerted attempt by Modi and his party to reduce Parliament to a mere notice board. The government has attempted to ram through its agenda and allow less and less time for genuine debate. 

The abrogation of Article 370 was pushed without debate, and the Farm Bills of 2020 were rammed through by voice vote. Fewer bills than ever before are sent to parliamentary standing committees for study and input from all parties. During UPA II, between 2009 and 2014, seven out of 10 bills were sent to committees. Under Modi, from 2019-2024, one out of five were sent to standing committees. 

There is a condescending reluctance to engage with the Opposition and a near-total reluctance to respond to any inconvenient questions or debates. In the winter session of 2023, a whopping 147 opposition MPs were suspended. Modi himself has never participated in Question Hour in the last 10 years. 

The Opposition had to threaten a no-confidence motion for the Modi government to discuss the issue of Manipur, a state where civil war has raged for months and hundreds have died. Even Budgets have been passed without debate and the office of the Speaker has been reduced to an appendage of the government. These actions fly in the face of constitutional norms. 

2. The normalisation of religion in politics: The Constitution makes it expressly clear: Indian citizenship cannot be based on religion as it recognises the equality of all religions. The Constitution rejects majoritarianism and says every Indian has the liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith, and worship. Yet over the past 10 years, the Modi regime’s outlook has been unabashedly Hindu-majoritarian, giving the Hindu community official and non-official preference over other faiths. 

The use of religion in politics and public life has been normalised, and Modi has openly declared himself a Hindu nationalist. Both Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have made public speeches invoking religion. UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s slogan, the communal dog whistle of “batenge toh katenge”, is only the latest in a long line of communal speeches, particularly at election time, designed to consolidate vote banks and spread religious hatred.

3. Destroying the federal spirit: ‘India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States,” says Article 1 of the Constitution, making it clear that federalism is part of the basic structure of India’s democracy. The rights, entitlements as well as the distinctive languages and cultural identities of different states are the fundamental building blocks of the Indian nation. Yet for the last ten years, the Modi regime has repeatedly discriminated against states that are BJP-ruled, and states ruled by the Opposition. 

All India Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal’s rightful dues have been withheld, Tamil Nadu got flood relief only after the state government approached the court, Karnataka chief minister staged a protest in Delhi to complain about the lack of funds, and Left-ruled Kerala has also complained. The BJP keeps invoking the inherently anti-federal slogan of “double engine sarkar” as if to imply that development can only take place if there are BJP governments both at the Centre and in states. In the BJP’s worldview, Opposition-ruled states apparently lack any engines. 

The BJP’s one-leader-one-nation-one-language-one-religion credo runs counter to the deep cultural linguistic, and political diversities of Indian states. Thus, the BJP has resoundingly failed to uphold one of the basic tenets of the Constitution: the federal spirit.

4. The outlawing of dissent: Freedom of expression and opinion is the basic feature of the Constitution as stated in Article 19. Article 21 states: “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.” The BJP has overthrown these Articles. Federal agencies have been harnessed to serve the ruling party’s agenda, and opposition politicians have been hounded and harassed, and in many cases thrown in jail. Dissenters, activists, thinkers, and critics who don’t espouse the BJP’s values have also been jailed by weaponising laws. Any form of disagreement with the Modi government is ostracised, and there is rampant name-calling such as “Urban Naxals”, “Anti-nationals,” “Jehadis” “Tukde Tukde Gang,” levelled at anyone who voices an opinion against the Modi regime. 

Harsh laws are selectively applied against those seen as Modi’s rivals, often placing them under the ED scanner. The brutal incarcerations of the late DU professor GN Saibaba and Father Stan Swamy, the continuing imprisonment of student activist Umar Khalid and those accused of a “conspiracy” in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case, reveal the Modi regime’s ferocious assaults on its critics. Saibaba spent a decade in and out of jail before he was finally acquitted. Seven months later, he died of post-surgery complications. 

Modi-friendly TV anchors have been encouraged to use foul language and lower the tone of the public discourse. They engage in vicious name-calling, are openly rude and boorish, and lack civility. Civility and politeness are regarded as signs of “weakness” when in fact the Constitution enjoins citizens to debate freely and peacefully. 

5. Damaging democratic institutions: The integrity of democratic institutions—judiciary, press, the cabinet system, party system, high public offices—and their role in checking overweening executive power have been laid down in the Constitution. The Constitution envisages checks and balances on government power by an independent judiciary and a free press. In the last ten years, the Modi regime has destroyed India’s press and reduced the media to its mouthpiece through a mix of threats and allurements. 

The RTI law has been diluted because the Modi government prefers opacity and secrecy over transparency. It took a Supreme Court intervention for the government to come clean about electoral bonds. There have also been attempts to interfere in the appointment of judges and the functioning of the courts. The high office of governors has been undermined. Governors have been given free rein to play a partisan role from the high perch of Raj Bhavans. Over the last decade, democratic institutions have been made subservient to the needs of a super-powerful executive. It took a wise verdict from the voters in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to significantly reduce the power that the Modi government had accumulated. Voters rightly judged that in a democracy, no politician or party should enjoy such untrammelled power.

If the Modi government truly wants to celebrate the Constitution on 26 November, it should genuinely live by the document’s teachings and values, instead of reducing Constitution Day to yet another well-marketed and well-managed photo-op. The truth is, irrespective of Constitution Day events, as long as the Modi-led BJP rules India, sadly, it will always be “samvidhan khatre mein hai”. 

Sagarika Ghose is a Rajya Sabha MP, All India Trinamool Congress. She tweets @sagarikaghose. Views are personal.

(Edited by Ratan Priya)