New Delhi: In 2015, ahead of the Bihar election, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s statement on reservation saw the opposition leaders leveraging it to the fullest for inflicting a crushing defeat on the BJP.
Cut back to 2024, the BJP central leadership is going all out to allay fears among Dalits and backward communities by assuring that reservations are safe, unlike the opposition’s claim that attempts were being made to change the Constitution that guarantees their quota rights.
The irony is that the BJP finds itself caught in this situation again in an all-important election year, courtesy not one like in 2015 but at least four leaders who have spoken either about amending or changing the Constitution while zealously raising the pitch of ‘Abki Baar 400 Paar, Teesri Baar Modi Sarkar’ slogan only to give ammunition to the opposition.
As BJP’s Meerut candidate Arun Govil of ‘Ramayan’ fame faced flak for stating that there is no harm in ‘changing’ the Constitution, he joined the ranks of sitting MPs Lallu Singh, Anantkumar Hegde and BJP’s Nagaur candidate Jyoti Mirdha to put the ruling party in the backfoot.
Not only such statements forced the BJP’s top two campaigners — PM Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah — to come out to dispel fear among the socially backward communities, Dalit leaders of the BJP have been instructed to campaign and counter the opposition charges especially in the Dalit-dominated seats across the country.
On Friday, Govil told a news channel that Modi himself has given a “guarantee” that the Constitution would not be changed.
Nonetheless, his previous statement was promptly taken up by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, RJD chief Lalu Prasad and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh to send a message to the backward communities that all the talk about changing the Constitution is for scrapping their reservations.
At a public meeting Wednesday at Nagina in Uttar Pradesh along with Akhilesh Yadav, Sanjay Singh came out to claim that after Lallu Singh, Jyoti Mirdha, Anantkumar Hegde, even Govil has mentioned about changing the Constitution.
BJP संविधान ख़त्म करेगी चुनाव ख़त्म करेगी आरक्षण ख़त्म करेगी।
मा.अखिलेश यादव जी के साथ नगीना जनसभा।
अपनी जान की बाज़ी लगाकर संविधान बचाएँगे। वायरल स्पीच https://t.co/WCPmAHSVEv via @YouTube
— Sanjay Singh AAP (@SanjayAzadSln) April 17, 2024
Akhilesh, too, spoke about why the BJP wants 400 seats to end reservations given to the backward sections of the society.
“PDA (acronym for Picchde [backward classes], Dalits and Alpsankhyak [minorities]) will defeat the BJP together because it wants to end the reservation given to backwards, Dalits and minorities by making a new Constitution. The BJP wants to win (the election) not for the service or welfare of the people, but to change the Constitution made by Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar,” he said in his speech delivered in Hindi.
"बीजेपी के नेताओं के जो स्टेटमेंट आते हैं उससे लगता है कि 400 पार का नारा ये इसलिए दे रहे हैं कि ये बाबा साहब भीमराव अंबेडकर जी के दिए संविधान को बदलना चाहते हैं।"
– माननीय राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष श्री अखिलेश यादव जी, मुरादाबाद pic.twitter.com/LjlFFqu6bh
— Samajwadi Party (@samajwadiparty) April 17, 2024
“The Election Commission should immediately take cognisance of such statements because what can be a bigger democratic violation than talking about fundamentally changing the Constitution. The public is asking whether the conspiracy to end their rights is not a violation of the code of conduct?”
On 15 April, RJD chief Lalu Prasad came out with a statement as well as a post on ‘X’, formerly Twitter, regarding the talk about changing the Constitution, an issue which he claimed is originally of the RSS.
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BJP’s counter push
The opposition leaders harping on the issue had led to PM Modi coming out to clear the air regarding the BJP’s plan of seeking a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
“People talk about 400 seats in Parliament because the Congress tried to stop me from doing good work… As for the Constitution, take note of Modi’s words, even if Babasaheb Ambedkar himself were to appear, he wouldn’t be able to abolish the Constitution. Our Constitution is akin to the Gita, the Ramayana, the Bible, and the Quran for the (BJP) government,” he said at a rally in Barmer, Rajasthan on 12 April.
#WATCH | During a public rally in Rajasthan's Barmer, PM Modi says, "There is a need to be cautious of the lies of Congress and INDIA alliance who insult Baba Saheb and the Constitution." pic.twitter.com/J86IyBFh07
— ANI (@ANI) April 12, 2024
A day before Modi rally in Barmer, Meena strongman Kirodi Lal Meena held a meeting of community leaders at Dausa to negate the opposition’s whisper campaign in tribal- dominated seats of Rajasthan.
Similarly, Shah at a rally in Khairagarh in Chhattisgarh — a tribal dominated state — on 14 April asserted that the BJP would neither allow reservations to end nor would it let the Congress do so.
“I want to make it clear that till the BJP is in politics, we will not let anything happen to reservation; we will not allow the Congress to end it either. The Congress has been doing a business of lies… It obstructed Ambedkar from entering the Lok Sabha by defeating him in the 1952 and 1954 elections,” he said.
Earlier, the BJP had strategically released its 2024 Lok Sabha election manifesto on Ambedkar’s birth anniversary to subtly send a message of its commitment to social justice.
BJPs SC Morcha national president Lal Singh Arya, meanwhile, has campaigned in more than 12 seats for Dalit outreach and to dispel “rumours”.
“Our leaders are meeting and campaigning to dispel these lies (being spread by the opposition). It was the Congress which did not support Ambedkar during his lifetime. And now they are spreading lies to get votes of Dalits and backward communities. The Congress did not remove Article 370 due to which the Valmiki community were deprived of reservation benefits in Kashmir. So, it’s the Congress which is denigrating Ambedkar,” he told ThePrint.
How BJP MPs stoked controversy
Besides Congress Rahul Gandhi’s pitch about the BJP’s plan to change the Constitution, the chatter gained momentum after six-time Uttara Kannada MP Anantkumar Hegde stoked controversy in March after he said amending the Constitution is not possible with BJP’s current majority in Parliament, a remark which he has made on more than one occasion.
The Congress in Karnataka soon held a ‘Save the Constitution’ rally following which the BJP distanced itself from the statement. Subsequently, Hegde was overlooked for the Lok Sabha candidature and replaced with Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri in Uttara Kannada.
The firebrand leader, however, remained unperturbed as he told ThePrint that he stood by his comments.
‘I stand by comments on the Constitution, Article 370, Ram Mandir, CAA all are amendments to the Constitution and my statements were misinterpreted, twisted and highlighted,” Hedge said.
Lallu and Mirdha then kept the controversy alive in April, as both of them stressed on having two-thirds majority for introducing changes in the Constitution.
(Edited by Tony Rai)