Constitution debate: BJP's ploy to isolate Congress from other Opposition parties

Facing allegations of misusing the Constitution from Opposition parties that have continuously targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came together to defend the Union government and blamed the Congress party for undermining the Constitution.

The blame game between the ruling BJP, and Congress, the main Opposition party, over the alleged misuse of Constitution was visible in Parliament when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh squarely blamed the grand old party for weakening the Constitution by imposing Emergency in the country.

Speaking on the first day of the two-day discussion on the ‘Glorious Journey of 75 Years of The Constitution of India’, Rajnath opened the debate for the BJP on Friday (December 13) and carried out a veiled attack on the Congress by saying that for the past few years, there have been attempts by one political party to take credit for the framing of Constitution.

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“The Constitution of India is not a contribution of any one particular political party but it is an unparalleled, transformative document that represents the values of the country. There is one particular party that has always tried to appropriate, and hijack the process of making of Constitution. There is an attempt to ignore the contribution of several leaders in the making of Constitution and in the last few years there have been deliberate attempts to project that only one political party contributed to the making of Constitution,” said Rajnath.

Implementing UCC

While launching a sustained attack on the Congress for alleging that the saffron party is misusing Constitution, the BJP leadership also took the opportunity to talk about the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the country.

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Although the BJP did not give a timeframe for it, senior BJP leader Jagdambika Pal said that the Opposition parties should make their stand clear on the issue.

The demand for UCC comes at a time when the Centre is planning to bring a Bill in Parliament to implement 'One Nation, One Election'. The BJP-NDA is planning to bring the Bill in the last week of the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament. After the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the removal of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, UCC and 'One Nation, One Election' are only two core issues that remain for the BJP to implement.

Attempts to isolate Congress

The strategy of the BJP-NDA in the two-day debate is interesting as the ruling alliance tried to create a wedge between the Congress and other Opposition parties. Most of the speakers of the BJP and NDA tried to use the debate to isolate the Congress party from other Opposition parties.

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While blaming the Congress for the misuse of the Constitution, the BJP leadership said that the main Opposition party continued to undermine the Constitution by making false allegations against Vice President and Chairman of Rajya Sabha, Jagdeep Dhankhar.

“The Congress party is responsible for sabotaging the Constitution by imposing Emergency in the country. It was the Congress party that was responsible for bringing down state governments. The Congress party arrested several leaders during Emergency putting them in jail and threatened democratic values. Even now, Congress is attacking the Vice President which is a constitutional position. It is the Congress party which has threatened the Constitution repeatedly and it should apologise to the nation,” Lahar Singh Siroya, senior leader of BJP and parliamentarian, told The Federal.

Political analysts believe that the BJP is facing continuous pressure from Congress, which blames it for undermining the Constitution. As a result of the sustained attack by the Congress on the BJP, the electoral performance of the BJP was impacted in the Lok Sabha polls when, for the first time in a decade, the BJP could not get a majority.

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“Independent surveys have shown that the BJP suffered electorally in the 2024 general elections due to the Opposition parties making Constitution one of the core issues of their campaign. The BJP has been under electoral pressure due to the concerted efforts of the Congress to blame it for having the agenda to undermine the founding principles of the Constitution, especially provisions in favour of the financially and socially marginal sections of people. The Union government is also trying to enable the BJP to associate itself with the Constitution because it has suffered electorally in the Lok Sabha polls due to the campaign of Opposition parties,” Ashutosh Kumar, political science professor at the Panjab University, told The Federal.