Fadnavis at Nagpur BJP rally accuses Congress of undermining Constitution, cites Emergency

The Bharatiya Janata Party held a rally in Nagpur titled "Samvidhan Bachao Arajakta Hatao". Addressing the gathering, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis sharply attacked the Congress and the Gandhi family, citing history to allege that the Congress tampered with the Constitution and weakened democracy.

He began with the Emergency of 1975. Fadnavis said the Congress party had openly murdered the country's Constitution that year. According to him, amendments were made to the Constitution in that period that wiped out the fundamental rights of ordinary citizens. He said that, with those rights gone, no citizen could approach either the High Court or the Supreme Court for their due.

Fadnavis then recalled the Allahabad High Court verdict. He said the court had made it clear in 1975 that the election of the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, was invalid and that she had come to power through corrupt practices. The Allahabad High Court had declared her election void. When the matter reached the Supreme Court, he said, the High Court order was not stayed in full there either.

According to Fadnavis, the Supreme Court said in its ruling that Indira Gandhi could remain Prime Minister until the final decision, but would have no right to vote or speak in Parliament.

The Chief Minister said that after this ruling by the country's highest court, the Congress threw the dignity of democracy to the winds. He alleged that the Congress misused its majority in Parliament and amended the Constitution.

Fadnavis also referred to the Constitution framed by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. He said Ambedkar had kept the Prime Minister subject to the law and the courts when drafting it, but the Congress brought an amendment providing that the Prime Minister would not be answerable to any court. In this way, he said, Indira Gandhi was shielded from the Supreme Court's ruling and kept in office.

Fadnavis also said that in 1977 a Janata Party government was formed under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, with Morarji Desai as Prime Minister. Only then, he said, was Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar's Constitution set right again. In his account, the Janata Party government ensured that the country's Prime Minister could not be above the Constitution and the Supreme Court, and that no citizen's fundamental rights could be taken away.

At the end of his speech, Fadnavis targeted Rahul Gandhi. He said that what your grandmother Indira Gandhi could not do, Rahul Gandhi is now trying to do. Fadnavis added that the Congress has always tampered with the Constitution and the Supreme Court.