The BJP Government will never change the Constitution or end reservation, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, accusing Congress of creating “fear psychosis” and resorting to spreading misinformation for “vote bank” politics. In an interview to PTI, Singh blasted the Congress for spreading “canards” that the BJP will change the Constitution if it returns to power and especially asserted that there was no question of changing the Preamble of the Constitution. His assurance that the Preamble of the Constitution will not be changed addresses concerns among critics that the word ‘secular’ to describe India could be removed by the BJP if it retains power. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been alleging that the BJP will “tear up and throw away” the Constitution if it retains power.

 

Some other Congress functionaries had expressed apprehensions that the BJP may drop the word “secularism” from the Preamble of the Constitution. “The Congress brought constitutional amendments 80 times. They changed the Preamble during the Emergency,” the Minister said. “The BJP will never change the Constitution. Constitution makers never imagined that there would be changes in the Preamble. You (Congress) only acted to hurt the core idea of the Constitution,” he said. “There is no question of changing the Preamble of the Constitution. They changed it and now they are making baseless allegations against us,” he added. The Preamble to the Constitution of India presents the principles of the Constitution. The 42nd Amendment in 1976 changed the description of India from a “sovereign democratic republic” to a “sovereign, socialist secular democratic republic”.