Rahul’s ancestors tampered with Constitution: Nadda

Health Minister and BJP president JP Nadda today said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had no knowledge of history and what efforts were made by his father, grandmother and great grandfather to “tamper with the Constitution”.

Speaking at the BJP's 'Samvidhan Gaurav Abhiyan', he said the Congress ruled the country for 65 years and its leaders “tampered with the Constitution and tried to destroy its basic provisions”. He attacked Rahul for using the term “Indian state” in a comment against the Narendra Modi government, BJP and the RSS.

“Today our Congress leader says ‘fighting against the Indian state’. He has no knowledge of history, nor does he have anything to do with it," Nadda said, adding that Rahul “just read” speeches handed over to him without making an effort to understand the content and context.

Rahul had recently said "the BJP and the RSS had captured every single institution in this country and we were now fighting the BJP, RSS and the Indian state itself”.

“As India gears up to celebrate its 76th Republic Day, we should remember who tampered with the Constitution, and tried to destroy its basic provisions, as well as who protected the Constitution, and who did the work of protecting and highlighting the ideas of Babasaheb Ambedkar,” Nadda said.

He said citizens must be conscious and wary of those hypocritical people who “keep roaming around with a copy of the Constitution without knowing or reading what is inside”. Rahul often holds up a copy of the Constitution at his poll rallies to attack the BJP.

Nadda said that Article 370 and Article 35 (A) were implemented by first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru despite Ambedkar’s opposition and these provisions deprived the people of Jammu and Kashmir of basic rights enshrined in the Constitution.

These provisions, which were scrapped by the Narendra Modi government, had made J&K a mess, Nadda asserted. “Ambedkar opposed it, and so did (Jana Sangh founder) Syama Prasad Mukherjee. The 126 laws that were passed in our Parliament were not implemented in J&K, depriving its people of various rights," he said.

Alluding to Emergency (1975-77), Nadda said Indira Gandhi tampered with the Constitution and sent 1.35 lakh people to jail, in the process destroying many families.

Nadda said it was a matter of pride that most of those who were jailed during Emergency were "from our ideology".