!["Defence Minister Rajnath Singh opens the debate on the Constitution's 75th anniversary](https://images.cnbctv18.com/uploads/2024/12/pti12-13-2024-000159b-1-2024-12-6922874c6771051c3634315acb03bee8.jpg?impolicy=website&width=640&height=360 ""Defence Minister Rajnath Singh opens the debate on the Constitution's 75th anniversary")
1 / 12Defence Minister Rajnath Singh opens the debate on the Constitution's 75th anniversary, highlighting its transformative role. "We the Indian people adopted the Constitution on October 26, 1949, this is the day Indians went from being residents to citizens. It was no longer rule by monarchy or rule by the British, but rule by democracy." As it lays out the responsibilities of the States, so also it grants citizens their fundamental rights. In one line, the Constitution touches all aspects of social, economic, political and cultural life and offers the path to nation-building. It also offers a moral trajectory. It enshrines co-operative federalism as well, and allows the judiciary and executive to function together for the benefit of citizens."
2 / 12"The contribution of several leaders in the making of the Constitution was deliberately ignored, a particular party always tried to hijack and appropriate the framing of the Constitution. On many occasions, the Congress has disrespected the Constitution and its spirit. It could not tolerate the independence and autonomy of institutions. It always tried to destroy the basic principles of the Constitution. Talk of protection of the Constitution does not seem appropriate coming from it. These days, I see many opposition leaders keep the Constitution in their pockets. Actually, this is what they have learnt from childhood, they have seen their families keep the Constitution in their pockets for generations."
3 / 12Congress leader and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra makes her maiden Lok Sabha speech. Gandhi paid tribute to Babasaheb Ambedkar, emphasising his monumental role in shaping the Constitution and its enduring principles of justice, equality, and unity. She hit at the ruling government saying, "The people of the entire country know that BJP has a 'washing machine'. Whoever moves from opposition to power, their stains get washed away. I see many of my old colleagues on the ruling party's side, who have probably been washed in the washing machine,"
4 / 12In a stinging critique of the prime minister, the Congress leader said, "There used to be a story that the king used to go among the people in disguise to listen to criticism. Today's king is also very fond of changing his disguise... But he neither has the courage to go among the public nor to listen to criticism...The 'suraksha kavach' of unity is being broken. The prime minister touches his forehead to the Constitution but when there are cries for justice from Sambhal, Hathras and Manipur, there is not a wrinkle on his forehead," the Wayanad MP said. "It seems Prime Minister Modi hasn't understood that 'Bharat ka Samvidhan' is not 'Sangh ka Vidhan."
5 / 12Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in his speech said, "This Constitution is our armour, our security. It provides us strength whenever needed. The Constitution is the true guardian of the rights of the oppressed, neglected, suppressed, and deprived. For people like us and the weak in the country, especially for PDA (Pichdde, Dalit and Alpsankhyak), saving the Constitution is a matter of life and death." "Whenever we get the opportunity, we will conduct a caste census. It will not deepen caste divisions but reduce them, ensuring rights and equality for those who have been deprived for long. Reservation was the most significant tool for social justice, but it has been diluted with outsourcing and contract-based jobs."
6 / 12Hitting at BJP, he said, "More than 20 crore people, especially Muslims, are being reduced to second-grade citizens. Atrocities against them are increasing daily. Their properties are being looted, homes demolished, and places of worship seized with administrative help." SP chief added, "This system is rapidly veering towards dictatorship. Even Hitler amended the constitution after being elected to establish tyranny. Our government seems to be treading the same path."
7 / 12Prime Minister Narendra Modi 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. 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.
8 / 12The family, having "tasted blood", repeatedly wounded the Constitution, Prime Minister Narendra Modi 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.
9 / 12Prime Minister Narendra 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.
10 / 12Slamming the Nehru-Gandhi family, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru amended the country's guiding document to curb freedom of expression and his daughter Indira Gandhi imposed an 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.
11 / 12Without naming Rahul Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi 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.
12 / 12Prime Minister Narendra 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.