OPINION | How Amit Shah showed the mirror to Congress
The Home Minister specifically targeted the Congress in his speech. In a lighter mood, he gave Congress the formula to win elections. Shah said, Congress can win only if casts off dynastic politics, appeasement of minorities and corruption in governance.
Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday showed the mirror to Congress while winding up the debate in Rajya Sabha on “75 glorious years of Indian Constitution”. He alleged that the Congress was anti-Constitution, anti-reservation and anti-poor. Shah also alleged that the Congress misused power to help only Nehru-Gandhi family and tinkered with the Constitution to help the family. He contrasted this with Narendra Modi, who amended Constitution only for the benefit of Dalits, backwards, tribals and economically weaker sections.
Amit Shah said, those who are openly displaying the copy of the Constitution do not understand its real spirit. On Rahul Gandhi’s assertion that the Congress would work towards removing the maximum 50 per cent cap on reservation, Shah warned that the Congress wants to give reservation to Muslims. “As long as BJP has even one MP in Parliament, we will not allow any reservation on the basis of religion”, Shah said. “They want to give reservation to Muslims by increasing the cap of 50 per cent, but we will not allow that, at any cost”, he added.
Shah challenged the Congress to clarify if it supported Muslim Personal Law in a secular country like India. “If so”, he said, “why don’t you bring Shariah law which provides for chopping off hands of thieves and stoning people to death?”.
Amit Shah said, BJP would bring uniform civil code in every state, on the lines of Uttarakhand, and this model law will be enacted in all states through democratic process. He blamed the nation’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for bringing Muslim Personal Law instead of Uniform Civil Code, which was favoured by the maker of the Constitution Dr BR Ambedkar. “This”, he said, “marked the beginning of appeasement politics in India and was followed by Rajiv Gandhi who rejected the Supreme Court’s Shah Bano case judgement to amend Muslim Personal Law.”
On the contrary, Narendra Modi, Amit Shah said, amended the Constitution to give 33 per cent seats to women in Parliament and state legislatures, gave 10 per cent reservation to economically weaker sections among upper castes, and granted statutory status to Backward Classes Commission.
This was Amit Shah’s sharpest attack on the Congress. BJP had all along been projecting itself as different from Congress on these three points.
In another striking comparison, Amit Shah explained the difference between why Congress amended the Constitution and how Modi amended it. Congress, he said, always amended the Constitution to save its “kursi” (throne), while Modi amended it for the betterment of the poor and backward classes.
One must try to understand the examples cited by Amit Shah. He said, Congress amended the Constitution to put curbs on freedom of speech and expression and to trample the fundamental rights of citizens. Shah is corrected. The black days of Emergency were witness to such amendments. Shah replied to three main allegations that have been levelled against the BJP in recent weeks.
On Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that BJP wants to change the Constitution and end reservations, Shah cited examples of how Modi government amended Constitution to give more rights to the poor and backward sections.
On the second allegation that BJP indulges in vote bank politics and harasses Muslims, Amit Shah mentioned the Shah Bano case judgement rejected by Rajiv Gandhi’s government and the Triple Talaq Abolition law enacted by Modi. He said, it was the Congress which robbed Muslim women of their post-divorce maintenance rights, whereas Modi gave Muslim women protection by abolishing Triple Talaq.
The third allegation levelled by opposition was BJP wins elections by tampering with electronic voting machines. Shah replied that assembly poll results of Maharashtra and Jharkhand came on the same day. In Maharashtra, the BJP-led coalition swept the elections, while JMM-led coalition won the Jharkhand polls. “How can EVMs be good in one state and bad in another state?”, Shah asked. Opposition leaders are not going to leave the EVM issue, because on Tuesday itself, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray described Devendra Fadnavis’ government as “EVM sarkar”.
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