By Dr. Gyan Pathak
‘Save the Constitution of India’ protests launched by the opposition parties cost PM Narendra Modi and his BJP majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections. The protests turned ugly by the close of the year with physical confrontation in the Parliament – which caused injuries to several BJP MPs. Now, at the fag-end of the year, both the Congress and the BJP NDA have announced a series of events in 2025 to take the battle to the other.
In 2024, the opposition INDIA bloc kept attacking the Modi-led government for undermining the integrity of the Constitution of India and violating its key provisions, while the ruling establishment kept defending the government, sometimes showing themselves as champions of the Constitution, charging the Congress with violating and subverting it when the Congress was the government. PM Narendra Modi’s counter-attack on December 15 was an example.
The Congress on December 26 passed resolutions in the Belagavi Extended Congress Working Committee (CWC) promising to continue with its protests against the government for violating and undermining the Constitution for a decade since 2014, when PM Narendra Modi came to power. The protests would continue up to Republic Day and a year-long India-wide outreach campaign would be launched to mark the 75th year of the enactment of the Constitution.
On the other hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said in his latest “Mann Ki Baat” that his government had commenced a year-long gamut of activities to celebrate the completion of 75 years of India’s Constitution. He said it was a matter of great honour for the people of the country. “The Constitution, handed over to us by our Constitution-makers, has stood the test of time in every sense of the term. The Constitution is our guiding light, our guide,” PM Modi said.
“This year, on Constitution Day, the 26th of November, many activities have commenced that will go on for a year. A special website ‘constitution75.com’ has been created to connect the citizens of the country with the legacy of the Constitution,” for people to read the preamble, and upload videos.
Other political parties, both from the ruling establishment and the opposition, are also expected to have their own programmes either to attack adversaries or defend themselves. It would make 2025 special and enlighten people on the real import of the Constitution, while learning from the attacks and counterattacks exposing the hypocrisy of political parties. Since it would be at a very large-scale, people would know much more than they got to know throughout 2024, the “political wrestling” between the ruling establishment and opposition.
On numerous occasions in the one decade of Modi-rule, the opposition has accused the government of violating and subverting the core principles – socialist, secular, democratic, and federal republic – of the Constitution, and also of undermining all the constitutional bodies, including the Election Commission of India, and the judiciary.
The Opposition had to intensify its protests against the government right from the beginning of 2024, when PM Narendra Modi inaugurated the Ram Temple at Ayodhya on January 22, when Modi’s Hindutva politics was on display against the core secular principle of the Constitution.
On March 31, 2024, INDIA bloc leaders assembled at Delhi’s Ramlila ground where they accused the Modi government of violating the Constitution by resorting to “confrontational federalism”. The Congress also charged the Prime Minister with fiscal centralization, obstruction of state programmes, destabilizing state governments, misusing governors and subverting the rights of the state against the federal democratic principles of the Constitution.
The Congress alleged that PM Modi violated in letter and spirit even the very first article of the Constitution which says, “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.” Opposition protested against the Modi government for alleged violation of the Constitutional principles throughout the election campaigns, and vowed to protect the integrity of the Constitution from the “threat from those who are in power”, accusing the government of misusing the investigating and election machinery.
Nevertheless, PM Modi and BJP leaders are trying their best to defend themselves till June 4 when election results showed that they had lost. In many cases, even the Supreme Court of India ruled against Centre’s highhandedness – whether it was misuse of governors, electoral bond scheme, or misuse of ED and CBI for terrorizing the opposition leaders by arresting and putting them behind bars, some without trial.
By the end of the year 2024, the situation turned worse, because the opposition INDIA bloc intensified their protests both inside and outside the parliament. Union Minister for Home Amit Shah’s statement in the Parliament during general debate on the occasion of 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of India was denigrating to the architect of the Constitution Dr B R Ambedkar, which provided more ammunition to the opposition to criticize the ruling establishment led by BJP.
BJP leadership on the other hand were quick in devising their own strategy to counter the opposition and they tried their best to show themselves as the flagbearer of not only the Constitution of India but also its core principles from behind their attack on the Congress saying that they violated the Constitution when in power. Now, as PM Modi said in his ‘Mann ki Baat’ the BJP leadership would try to show themselves as the real flag-bearers of the Constitution through a series of events.
2025, would thus be an interesting year for the politics in the country, which would be woven around the Constitution and its core principles amidst the political fire and crossfires between the ruling BJP and the opposition political parties, currently part of the INDIA bloc led by the Congress. (IPA Service)
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