AICC Legal Conclave; ‘Constitutional Challenges-Perspectives & Pathways’
· What we see today is dictatorship, not democracy: Kharge
· If 15 seats hadn’t been rigged, Modi wouldn’t be the PM: Rahul
· Says, we suspect BJP won 70-100 seats through rigging in LS elections
NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leaders today expressed caution over the looming threat to the Constitution of India, by the current ruling establishment. They asserted that the Congress will not let that happen at any cost.
Addressing the AICC Annual Legal Conclave, organised under the overarching theme ‘Constitutional Challenges-Perspectives & Pathways’ by the AICC’s Law, Human Rights and RTI Department, at the Vigyan Bhawan here today, Congress President Shri Mallikarjun Kharge and the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Shri Rahul Gandhi cited several instances of how the ruling establishment in the country has undermined the Constitutional institutions.
They also congratulated the legal fraternity of the country for defending and protecting the Constitution. Besides, they said, the Congress party owes a lot to the legal fraternity, as most of its stalwarts were legal professionals.
In a special message, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, CPP Chairperson, which was read out by former Union Minister Shri Salman Khurshid, said, “The Constitution of India is more than a legal charter. It is the moral foundation of our democracy, built on Justice, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. It was shaped through the sacrifices and vision of the Indian National Congress. Even before Independence, the Congress party imagined a Constitution by Indians, for Indians – from the Nehru Report 1928 to the demand for a Constituent Assembly in 1934. Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru laid the groundwork, and Dr B R Ambedkar, as Chairman of the Drafting Committee, gave form to these ideals. He warned that without social and economic justice, political democracy would be just a top dressing.
She said, the Congress recognised this and acted on it, expanding rights, strengthening institutions, and upholding dignity and inclusion. Today, the Constitution is under siege.
She said, the BJP-RSS, which never fought for freedom or upheld equality, now uses its power to dismantle the very framework it long opposed.
“Their ideological forebears glorified Manusmriti, rejected the tricolour, and envisioned a Hindu Rashtra, where democracy is hollow and discrimination is the law”, she noted, adding, “in power, they’ve eroded institutions, criminalised dissent, targeted minorities and betrayed Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs and the working poor”
Now they seek to erase socialism and secularism, pillars of Ambedkar’s vision of equal citizenship, she said and warned, this is not reform, but an ideological coup replacing our democratic republic with a theocratic corporate state serving the powerful few.
Speaking on the occasion, Kharge said that the Constitution is the soul of Indian democracy that guarantees justice, liberty, equality and fraternity in the country. He said, the same Constitution is in danger today as the ruling establishment appears desperate to change it.
The Congress president noted that had the BJP got 400 seats in the last Lok Sabha elections, it might have changed the Constitution. He underlined that it was due to the efforts of Shri Rahul Gandhi who made ‘Saving the Constitution’ the central issue of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and the Congress party’s campaign, that the BJP did not get even a simple majority.
He pointed out how some senior BJP and the RSS leaders were repeatedly saying that the words ‘Secular’ and ‘Socialist’ should be removed from the Preamble of the Constitution.
However, he reminded them that their power is limited whereas the power of people to protect the Constitution is unlimited. He said, the same people slapped them on their face by not only denying them 400 seats, but also refusing them even a simple majority.
He also referred to a High Court judge’s derogatory remarks against a particular community, saying no action was taken against him.
He also referred to the Special Intensive Revision of the Electoral Rolls in Bihar. He said it was being done with a clear intent to disenfranchise the Dalits, Adivasis, the poor and the minority voters. He stated that 65 lakh voters will be left out.
Addressing the conclave, Shri Rahul Gandhi said that a carefully and meticulously developed constitutional architecture was under constant attack. “That architecture is being destroyed and systematically unraveled on every front-some visible and others hidden”.
Reiterating his charge about the electoral manipulation, Gandhi said that Narendra Modi would not have been the Prime Minister of the country today if elections in 15 parliamentary constituencies were not rigged. He pointed out, Modi is the Prime Minister with a slim majority and the party suspects that elections in somewhere 70 to 100 seats were rigged.
The senior Congress leader asserted that he has clear proof which will be revealed in a few days as how the elections were manipulated. He said, while he had the suspicion for a long time, but he did not have the proof, which he has got now.
He said, between the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections in Maharashtra, a period of 4 months only, one crore new voters were added in the state and bulk of it went to the BJP.
“We have such proof that we will show it to the whole country that the institution of the Election Commission does not exist. It has disappeared”, he revealed, while giving details how the Congress party worked hard for six months to find evidence and proof of how the elections were manipulated. Citing an example, he said, in one case, out of the 6.5 lakh voters, 1.5 lakhs were fake.
“You will see the shockwave that will go through the electoral system when we release this data. Truth is that the election system in India is already dead”, he remarked.
Gandhi also quoted a document, which had clearly mentioned that the Prime Minister’s Office and the National Security Adviser had interfered in the Rafael Deal. This document, he said, would have brought down any government of any country anywhere in the world, but nothing happened in India. “You know where that document went and where that document died”, he said.
The Leader of Opposition said that anyone who fights this government was being targeted, citing his own example of fighting about 30 legal cases. He also revealed how a senior BJP leader, not alive now, had approached him to threaten him not to support the farmers’ cause against the central law.
“But I told him that he had approached a wrong person and that the Congressmen cannot be threatened or intimidated”, he said, while pointing out, “we were not scared of the British empire, would we be scared of the BJP”!
Referring to the Constitution, while holding a copy in his hand, he said, it is the manifestation of India’s history and culture of over 5000 years. “By defending the Constitution, we are defending our way of life”, he remarked.
Gandhi also rapped those who were assaulting others in the name of religion. “Tell me, which Hindu tradition tells us to beat up a Muslim boy or to lynch people”, he asked, while asserting, “our tradition says, everybody is equal”.
Earlier, Chairman of the AICC’s Law, Human Rights and RTI Department Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi welcomed the guests and spelt out the agenda of the annual conclave.
He strongly underlined that the “Constitution of India is not just a legal contract between citizens; it is a living, beating heart of our Democracy. It was the Indian National Congress that envisioned it. It is the Congress party that is the conscience keeper of the Constitution”, he said.
Dr Singhvi said, “I stand before you as a deeply concerned citizen of the Republic of India. A Republic whose Constitutional soul today stands tested, tarnished and threatened. We are living through a moment in which the Constitution is not merely ignored, it is being twisted. Constitutional values – JUSTICE, LIBERTY, EQUALITY and FRATERNITY are gasping for air”.
The conclave was attended among others by senior Congress leaders, Chief Ministers, legal luminaries and MPs.
