Our government strengthening Constitution, Congress repeatedly wounded it after tasting blood: PM Modi in reply to debate in Lok Sabha

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that the Congress, having "tasted blood", repeatedly wounded the Constitution while his government's policies and decisions since it took office in 2014 have been aimed at boosting India's strength and unity in line with the vision of the Constitution.

Replying to a two-day debate in Lok Sabha on the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution, he took a swipe at the past Congress governments, accusing them of planting "poisonous" seeds in the country's diversity to accentuate its contradictions and damage its unity.

Training guns at the Nehru-Gandhi family of the Congress, he said they left no stone unturned to strike blows to the Constitution.

"This family challenged the Constitution at every level," he said, adding that he was singling out the family as its members were in power for 55 years.

The family, having "tasted blood", repeatedly wounded the Constitution, he said, citing several decisions of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi when they held the office of prime minister.

Their next generation is also into the same game, he said in a swipe at the Leader of Opposition in the House Rahul Gandhi and his MP sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Modi said leaders like him and many others who came from ordinary families could never have reached where they did but for the strength of the Constitution, as he underlined his long commitment to its values.

As chief minister of Gujarat, he said, his government celebrated the 60th year of the Constitution's adoption by placing a copy of the document on an elephant while he walked underneath barefoot in a symbolic gesture to highlight its supremacy.

Slamming the Nehru-Gandhi family, he said first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru amended the country's guiding document to curb freedom of expression and his daughter Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency to defy a Supreme Court judgment that annulled her election as an MP.

She "throttled India's democracy and mutilated the Constitution" when the 25th year of its adoption was approaching, to save her chair as prime minister, he said, noting that she also effected an amendment to protect the president, vice president and herself from any legal challenge to their position with a retrospective effect.

The country was turned into jail and the judiciary was throttled, he said. Rajiv Gandhi, who took over as prime minister after his mother's assassination, also amended the Constitution.

This blot on the Congress cannot be washed off, Modi asserted.

Without naming Rahul Gandhi, the prime minister said an "arrogant" person tore the decision of the Cabinet when the Congress-led UPA government headed by the then prime minister Manmohan Singh was in power.

The National Advisory Council, which was headed by Sonia Gandhi, was put "above" the Cabinet during the UPA rule, he added.

While the makers of the Constitution took a considered decision to disallow reservation on the basis of religion and faith in the interest of the country's unity and integrity, the Congress in its "greed for power" and to "appease its vote bank" pushed for it in violation of the constitutional spirit, he said.

His government, Modi said, repealed Article 370 to unify the country and brought in GST to roll out "one nation one tax" regime.

He hailed India's journey since the adoption of the Constitution in 1949 as "extraordinary", asserting that the country's ancient democratic roots have long been an inspiration for the world.

India is not only a big democracy but it is the mother of democracy, he said in the Lok Sabha replying to a two-day debate on the 75 years of the adoption of the Constitution.

Modi said India has resolved to become a developed country by 2047 and its unity is the biggest requirement to achieve the goal. "Our Constitution is the basis of our unity," he said.

Modi said India defied all apprehensions about its democratic future after independence and added its Constitution has brought the country to this stage.

He paid tributes to the makers of the Constitution and the country's citizens for living up to the spirit of its makers.

Those involved in the making of the Constitution were well aware that India was not born in 1947 or turned democratic in 1950, he said, citing remarks of eminent personalities like Purushottam Das Tandon and Bhim Rao Ambedkar.

Women were given voting rights by the Constitution, Modi said, adding the country is now seeing women-led development.

He lauded the parliamentarians for the unanimous passage of the law to give reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.