Rahul Gandhi reacts to BJP MP's ‘Constitution, 400 seats’ remarks: 'PM Modi's hidden agenda'

Anantkumar Hegde reportedly said the BJP alone would need 400 Lok Sabha seats to amend the Constitution in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday reacted sparkly to Karnataka BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde's fresh statement purportedly saying that there is a need to rewrite the majority of the Indian Constitution. The BJP MP reportedly alleged that Congress leaders in the past amended the Constitution to downgrade Hinduism and said it must be prioritised.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. (ANI)

Anantkumar Hegde also said the BJP alone would need 400 Lok Sabha seats to do that in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

“The statement of the BJP MP that he needs 400 seats to change the Constitution is a public declaration of the hidden agenda of Narendra Modi and his 'Sangh Parivar'. The ultimate goal of Narendra Modi and the BJP is to destroy Baba Saheb's Constitution. They hate justice, equality, civil rights and democracy,” Rahul Gandhi wrote in Hindi on X (formally Twitter).

The former Congress president also alleged that “by dividing society, guarding the freedom of expression and crippling independent institutions, they want to turn India's great democracy into a narrow dictatorship by conspiring to eliminate the opposition”.

Six years since Anantkumar Hegde said the BJP would change the Constitution to do away with the word "secular" in its preamble, the BJP MP on Sunday reiterated it, exhorting the public to ensure two-thirds majority for the saffron party in Lok Sabha to amend the country's founding document, news agency PTI reported.

Addressing a gathering, Hedge said the BJP needs a two-thirds majority in both houses of Parliament to amend the Constitution and “set right distortions and unnecessary additions made to it by the Congress”.

The party would also need to come to power in more than 20 states for this, the six-time Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka said.

“If the Constitution has to be amended -- the Congress fundamentally distorted the Constitution by forcefully filling unnecessary things in it, especially by bringing in laws that were aimed at suppressing the Hindu society -- if all of this has to be changed it is not possible with this (current) majority,” PTI quoted him as saying 

"If we think it can be done as Congress is not there in Lok Sabha and (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi has two-thirds majority in Lok Sabha, and keep quiet, it is not possible," Hedge said.

"Modi said -- Ab ki baar 400 paar (This time it will be above 400 seats) -- Why above 400? ... We have two-thirds majority in Lok Sabha, (but) in Rajya Sabha we don't have two-thirds majority. We have a small majority. In state governments, we don't have an adequate majority," Hegde said.

Hegde said NDA winning more than 400 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls would eventually help in mustering a similar majority in the Rajya Sabha, and coming to power in two-third of the states.

The statement comes when the Karnataka government has been organising a statewide ‘Constitution awareness programme’ to educate people about the Indian constitution.

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah had said a few days ago, “Some people are saying that they will change the Constitution if they come to power. A few leaders who do not even know the power of the Indian constitution are making irresponsible comments. People need to be aware of how great our Indian constitution is, and this drive will help them to learn about it," he said.

In 2017, Hegde had to apologise to the Lok Sabha for simillar remarks against the Constitution but said his comments were “twisted”.

“Regarding the deadlock in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha due to my statement, I want to assure my friends that the Constitution is supreme to me, Parliament is supreme to me,” he had said.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, however, objected to Hegde’s clarification and said that he had spoken against Ambedkar.

Hegde had reportedly said at a public event in Karnataka that people should identify themselves by their religions and “those who, without knowing about their parental blood, call themselves secular, they don’t have their own identity ... They don’t know about their parentage".

“Seculars do not know what their blood is. Yes, the Constitution has given that right to say ‘we are secular’.... but the Constitution has been amended many times, we will also amend it. We have come to power for that,” Hegde was reported as saying.