Constitution facing 'existential crisis', BJP has 'completely surrendered' to RSS diktats: Kharge

Insisting that the Constitution that stood the test of time is now facing an "existential crisis", Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said the BJP government has
"completely surrendered" itself and its institutions to the diktats of the RSS.

"Since coming to power, RSS has used the BJP as a political vehicle on every opportunity to curtail freedoms, enshrined in the Constitution. Illegal has become legal because the fringe has now become mainstream," Kharge noted.

The RSS has used the BJP as a political vehicle on every opportunity to curtail freedoms, enshrined in the Constitution and now can be used interchangeably, he said.

Kharge said people who perpetrate RSS ideology are against the Constitutional guarantee of reservation to Dalits, Adivasis and Backward Classes.

"Attacks against SC/STs, the poor and OBCs are being celebrated. Women are being blamed for atrocities inflicted on them and criminals, close to ruling party, are being shielded," he said in a statement on the occasion of Constitution Day.

Read | Kharge slams Modi government for 'not fulfilling' promises made to protesting farmers

"Mysterious deaths of judges; their urgent transfers before they were to pronounce judgments; or their hounding when they have stood against the government, hasn't gone unnoticed by people of India," he said.

He alleged that any dissent by Opposition is being tackled by "coercively misusing" CBI and ED. He also referred to the functioning and independence of the Election Commission, saying it has been jeopardised.

Opaque system of Electoral Bonds enforced as money bill has been brought to give undue advantage to ruling party, Kharge said.

Referring growing tension between states and the Centre, Kharge said the country has reached a point where there is growing disharmony not just among people but also between governments and states. "Ours is no longer a collaborative federal nation," he lamented.

He claimed that the BJP-RSS cadres only alternative to constructive dialogue is violence and their natural instincts is only to subvert, and their only motivation is to divide the country along religious, caste and communal lines.

"Children are given instruction in weapon training, in public spaces and institutions from a young age. Universities have been made a platform to propagate the partisan agenda of the ruling dispensation and strangulate any dissenting view. History books are being rewritten to suit and perpetuate BJPs hateful agenda. There is moral surveillance in all public arenas. Privacy is being banished. Citizens and civil society have been mercilessly attacked by the topmost echelons of power, for raising their voice," he added.