26 November,2015 11:22 PM IST | | Agencies
Congress today warned in Lok Sabha of 'bloodshed' if any attempt was made to review the Constitution, drawing sharp reaction from the government which said the opposition should not issue any threats
New Delhi: Congress today warned in Lok Sabha of 'bloodshed' if any attempt was made to review the Constitution, drawing sharp reaction from the government which said the opposition should not issue any threats.
Parliament can amend the Constitution, which has already been done over 100 times, but it is altogether a different thing to review it, Leader of Congress Mallikarjun Kharge said while participating in a debate on the 'Commitment to the Constitution'.
While contending that earlier such attempts have met with failure, Kharge said, "Agar samvidhaan badalne ki koshish ki toh rakhtpaat hoga" (there will be bloodshed if an attempt is made to change the Constitution).
BJP members including Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu protested against his remarks and demanded that these be expunged as these were objectionable.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has decided to expunge the word "rakhtpaat" from Parliament proceedings record.
Kharge, who spoke for over an hour, also rejected the criticism that nothing was done in the last 65 years saying that several projects were initiated by Jawahar Lal Nehru towards building a modern India.
It was only because of the initiatives taken by the Congress government that it had become possible for the Centre to implement laws like Right to Food Act and Right to Education, he said.
The Congress leader said it was not correct on the part of Home Minister Rajnath Singh to object to introduction of words like 'socialist' and 'secular' in the Preamble of the Constitution.
The Home Minister came out with a strange definition of secularism, Kharge said, adding "it should be our dharma to follow the spirit of the Preamble" of the Constitution.