Congress ready with plan to corner BJP

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 25

The Congress is gearing to invoke recent incidents of intolerance, including the Dadri lynching, in the debate on the Constitution to be held during the special session of Parliament scheduled for tomorrow and day after.

Either of the two top Congress leaders – party president Sonia Gandhi or vice-president Rahul Gandhi – will lead the debate (in Lok Sabha) entitled “Commitment to Constitution” which will be held in the memory of Dr BR Ambedkar to mark the adoption of the Constitution on November 26, 1949. Dr Ambedkar was chairman of the Constitution drafting committee and the government is observing his 125th birth anniversary. The debate is coming at a time when the country is simmering with voices of dissent and scholars are returning awards to protest what they call “growing intolerance”.

The Congress leaders in the all-party meeting today proposed to the government that at the end or the start of the debate, a resolution about commitment to the Constitution should come from the presiding officers of both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha and not from the government.

“The government has agreed to our demand. This is a good start. They have said they will circulate the draft resolution so that the same can be adopted with political party consensus,” Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said today.