Generations of Nehru-Gandhi family left spirit of Constitution in 'bloodied state': PM Modi

New Delhi: In a searing attack on the Nehru-Gandhi family, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday alleged its generations assaulted the Constitution, leaving its spirit in a "bloodied state".

Responding to the two-day debate on the 'Glorious Journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India', he said first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had "tasted blood" by amending the Constitution and successive generations of the family kept assaulting the guiding document time and again, leaving it it tatters.

Modi said Nehru had written a letter to chief ministers in 1951, contending that if the Constitution came in the way, changes should be made to it at any cost.

Modi said Nehru did not pay heed to the advice of then president Rajendra Prasad, then Lok Sabha Speaker G V Mavlankar and stalwarts including Acharya Kripalani and Jayaprakash Narayan.

"This sin was committed in 1951. The nation was not silent .. But, Panditji had his own Constitution, he did not pay heed and dismissed their concerns," Modi said.

"They tasted blood by changing the Constitution and they kept assaulting it. They had tasted blood. They left the spirit of the Constitution in a bloodied state. The seed that was sown by the first prime minister was nurtured by another prime minister Indira Gandhi," Modi said.

"When Rajiv Gandhi became the prime minister, he continued to attack the Constitution," Modi said.

He also took potshots at Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, while claiming that the Constitution was altered 75 times in 60 years of Congress' tenure.

Modi said Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency by misusing the Constitution and even clipped the wings of courts through Constitutional amendments to capture the judiciary.

"The Constitution was torn apart when it was completing 25 years. The Emergency was imposed in 1975, all constitutional rights were snatched, and the country was turned into a jail. All the rights of the citizens were taken away and there was a clampdown on the media," the Prime Minister said.

"The Congress cannot wipe off this sin. Whenever democracy will be discussed across the world, this sin of the Congress will be remembered," he said.

Turning to Rajiv Gandhi, Modi said the former prime minister attacked the Constitution by overturning the Supreme Court verdict in the Shah Bano case. "Rajiv Gandhi sided with extremists for vote bank politics," he said.

Later, he said the National Advisory Council, which was headed by then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was placed "above" the elected government headed by Manmohan Singh.

"The Congress placed a non-Constitutional body, the National Advisory Council, over and above the prime minister," Modi said.

Without naming Rahul Gandhi, the prime minister said an "arrogant" leader "tore" the decision of the Cabinet.