Congress to hold nationwide protests against Anantkumar Hegde's remarks on Constitution

The BJP MP had urged people in Karwar while addressing a rally to give give two-third majority to the party to get Constitution amended.

New Delhi: Congress will hold nationwide protests against the BJP over its MP Anantkumar Hegde's remark about amending the Constitution with its president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday accusing the saffron party of being against social justice and secularism and questioning why Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keeping quiet over the issue.

Leaders said the first protest will be held in Jantar Mantar on Tuesday, as it decided to up the ante against the ruling party in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections and depict it as one that is anti-Dalit, anti-backward classes and anti-minority.

Addressing a press conference here, Kharge said it is with "great sadness" that he is saying that the ruling BJP has "not completely accepted" the country's Constitution.

"On one hand, the Prime Minister says that the Constitution will never be changed and on the other hand, he asks his people to say that a two-thirds majority is required to amend the Constitution," he said.

"This is not said by a normal person or a fringe element, they are leaders and MPs of the BJP. They have been saying this and today again, they again repeated this in Karnataka that the Constitution must be changed," Kharge said.

His comments were in response to Hegde's remarks in Karnataka's Karwar on Sunday that people should give two-third majority to BJP in Parliament as well as make the party win a large number of states to "set right the distortions and unnecessary additions made to it by the Congress". BJP has distanced itself from the remarks.

Kharge alleged that the BJP is “against social justice and secularism enshrined in the Constitution” while recalling RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s remarks against reservations years ago.

“This is not a good mindset, this will create upheaval in the country if you want to change the Constitution...If anyone in my party makes such remarks I will remove him, if they (BJP) have courage they should do it.... If they believe in B R Ambedkar they should remove such people from their party and not give them tickets.”

He said when one talks about two-third majority, it is to change the Constitution, which provides for reservation. “The aim is to change the Constitution. That is why Modi is speaking about 400 seats. If Modi has the guts, he should say that he will expel people who make such comments, and deny tickets to such people,” he said.

Kharge accused Modi of talking about BR Ambedkar a lot but does not follow his ideals.