Union Minister and BJP leader Nitin Gadkari in Amravati district.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Pune: Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday stressed that the 'salient features' of the Constitution of India such as secularism and fundamental rights can not be changed by any party, leader or even Parliament.
The Congress' claim that the BJP was planning to change the country's founding document was baseless, he said.
The opposition party, when it was in power, had amended the Constitution many times, the BJP leader said, speaking at a campaign rally for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls in Maan tehsil of western Maharashtra's Satara district.
'They are spreading this propaganda that the BJP is planning to change the Constitution of India, written by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, but the Constitution cannot be changed,' Gadkari said.
'The Supreme Court has ruled that the salient features of the Constitution, including the freedom of speech, fundamental rights, democracy, secularism, cannot be changed by any leader, party, or Parliament,' he added, apparently referring to the famous `basic structure' principle underlined by the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati judgement.
Congress governments of the past had made amendments to the second part of the Constitution 80 times, and during Emergency then prime minister Indira Gandhi had 'distorted the Constitution', Gadkari said.