The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday hit back at Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi over his speech in the House.
During his speech in the Lok Sabha, the Congress MP invoked Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, seen as an ideologue to both BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
“Nice that you say you are defending the Constitution, but I want to ask, do you stand by your leader's words? Because when you speak about protecting the Constitution you are abusing, ridiculing Savarkar,” Gandhi told the BJP MPs.
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Countering Gandhi's attacks, BJP MP Anurag Singh Thakur said in the House,"Last time when there was a discussion, I said that some people roam around with a copy of the Constitution, but are clueless about the number of pages it has."
“This is because they have never opened it. Rahul Gandhi shows around the book but has not read even two pages,” Thakur said in the Lok Sabha.
“The truth is that the preface which has been written was written by Supreme Court's senior lawyer Gopal Shankar Narayan.
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He has written that the Constitution which was made at that time was made by the very intelligent people of the country in which Baba Saheb, Ambedkar...everyone played a very very big role,” the former Union minister later told ANI.
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“But if you read carefully, he has written that thankfully the Constitution that was made at that time was not influenced by Nehruvian thinking. Secondly, he has further written that if this Constitution did not have the power, then the common citizens of India would not have got freedom from the dark chapter of Emergency and would not have got their rights...The Congress even threatened the judiciary,” he added.
Union minister Giriraj Singh too attacked the Congress leader, invoking the Emergency proclaimed in 1975 in tenure of Rahul Gandhi's grandmother Indira Gandhi.
“The Constitution was violated dozens of times and her grandmother became a dictator and he is giving advice to others,” Singh told ANI.
BJP MP Jagdambika Pal too hit out at Gandhi, saying,"Has Rahul Gandhi forgotten the day when he tore a bill passed by his own government when Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister? He had insulted the Constitution that very day... Congress forced BR Ambedkar to resign as Union Minister because Jawaharlal Nehru always opposed him."
(With agency inputs)
“But if you read carefully, he has written that thankfully the Constitution that was made at that time was not influenced by Nehruvian thinking. Secondly, he has further written that if this Constitution did not have the power, then the common citizens of India would not have got freedom from the dark chapter of Emergency and would not have got their rights...The Congress even threatened the judiciary,” he added.
Union minister Giriraj Singh too attacked the Congress leader, invoking the Emergency proclaimed in 1975 in tenure of Rahul Gandhi's grandmother Indira Gandhi.
“The Constitution was violated dozens of times and her grandmother became a dictator and he is giving advice to others,” Singh told ANI.
BJP MP Jagdambika Pal too hit out at Gandhi, saying,"Has Rahul Gandhi forgotten the day when he tore a bill passed by his own government when Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister? He had insulted the Constitution that very day... Congress forced BR Ambedkar to resign as Union Minister because Jawaharlal Nehru always opposed him."
(With agency inputs)