Just six months ago, the Congress and the INDIA bloc managed to give the seemingly invincible BJP a scare in the Lok Sabha elections by pitching a narrative centred around the Constitution. But much has changed politically since then and for the next few days, starting on Friday, the Constitution will be the subject of debate and discussion in Parliament, with there being a possibility of Congress leader and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra opening for the Opposition.
Playing on the BJP’s ambitious “ab ki baar, 400 paar (this time, more than 400 seats)” slogan, the Congress managed to convince some sections, especially Dalits and Scheduled Tribes (STs), that such a massive majority could pose danger to the Constitution and result in changes to the reservation architecture. The Constitution was front and centre of the Congress’s Lok Sabha campaign.
The grand old party believes that its campaign had some traction and was instrumental in pushing the BJP below the 272 mark. Rahul Gandhi has not stopped displaying the pocket-sized red-colour Constitution since then. He has always relied on the power of repetition, be it the Rafale fighter jet issue in 2019 or the Gautam Adani and crony capitalism charge since then. And Constitution and social justice nowadays.
The BJP, on the other hand, rubbished the Congress campaign with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself repeatedly asserting that the Constitution was his government’s guiding light — in his words Gita, Ramayan, Mahabharat, Bible and Quran for the government — and asserted that it was successive Congress governments that had subverted the Constitution with their actions.
Six months after the Constitution took centre stage in the electoral battleground, the grand stage of Parliament is expected to witness a rewind and replay as the ruling BJP and the INDIA bloc led by the Congress will once again spar over the Constitution during a debate to mark 75 years of its adoption. The debate will take place in the Lok Sabha on Friday and Saturday and in the Rajya Sabha next week. Prime Minister Modi will reply to the debate in Lok Sabha on Saturday evening.
Much political water has flown under the bridge since June 4, when the Lok Sabha poll results came out boosting the Opposition INDIA alliance. The Congress went into Assembly elections in four key states held since then with the Lok Sabha campaign template but it backfired spectacularly. The BJP staged a remarkable resurgence and return in Haryana and Maharashtra, two states where the Congress and the INDIA bloc had managed to put the BJP on the back foot in the Lok Sabha elections.
But Congress strategists believe the party should keep harping on the issue of “danger to the Constitution”, linking it to the social justice architecture. The hope in the party will be that the narrative, which appeared to not work effectively in the Maharashtra and Haryana elections, will get a shot in the arm with these debates in Parliament. Sources said the party had decided to field Priyanka Gandhi to open the debate from the Opposition side. If it happens, it will be her debut speech in Parliament. So will Priyanka reshape the Congress’s narrative, adding more elements to it, or largely follow the Rahul line?
The Congress has always accused the Modi government of trampling on Constitutional institutions and subverting the spirit of the Constitution. The party believes it can score a political point or two over the BJP.
From the government side, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will initiate the debate in the Lok Sabha and Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to do the same in the Rajya Sabha. The BJP has also decided to field several ministers to counter the Opposition charge.
The BJP has always countered the Congress charge pointing to the conduct of its governments since Independence. The Prime Minister himself has in the past accused the Congress of having trampled on the rights of states and regional parties by dismissing elected governments on as many as “90 occasions” by “misusing” Article 356 of the Constitution.
Modi and the BJP have also often spoken about the “dark days of Emergency” to argue that the Congress has no right to talk about the Constitution and referred to the Rajiv Gandhi government’s attempts to curb press freedom to counter the charge that it was bludgeoning free speech.
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