Talk Of Changing India’s Constitution Is Meaningless: PM Modi
Mumbai: The prime minister, Narendra Modi, has dismissed as pointless any discussion of changing the Constitution and claimed that the “most transformative steps” taken by his government have been accomplished without it and with the help of the general population.
Modi mentioned the “transformative steps” in an interview with the Financial Times (FT), a British business daily. These included getting over 1 billion people online through a ground-breaking drive for digital public infrastructure and a national toilet-building programme called “Clean India.”
Modi stated that he is “very confident of victory” in the national elections of 2024 and that people understand that the country is on “the cusp of a take-off.” In what the paper called an unusual interview and further written replies, he told FT, “They want this flight to be expedited, and they know the best party to ensure this is the one which brought them this far.”
Citing his government’s track record of “solid change in the common man’s life,” Modi asserted that the goals of the populace have evolved over the past ten years.
The remarks were made a few days before the national elections that are scheduled for the summer of next year saw the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regain control of Madhya Pradesh and return to power in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
According to FT, a third term would be a validation for Modi’s hordes of admirers, who claim he has elevated the Hindu faith to the heart of public life, enhanced hundreds of millions of people’s lives, and developed India’s economy and international reputation. It further stated that the opposition, led by the Congress, has united under the acronym INDIA in an alliance that pledges to “protect democracy and the constitution” against what they claim is an assault on the secular ideals of the nation’s founders.
According to FT, Modi’s administration has come under fire for allegedly suppressing opponents, stifling civil society, and discriminating against the significant Muslim minority in the nation.
While FT said that the accusations of democratic backsliding have frightened some observers in India and abroad at a time when foreign leaders are placing a great deal of emphasis on the nation as a geopolitical and economic ally, the BJP has refuted these assertions.
FT reports that Modi’s opponents believe that if the BJP wins a significant majority, he would use a third term to irreversibly undermine secular values, maybe by revising the Constitution to make India an official Hindu republic.
Modi stated that while BJP detractors were allowed to voice their thoughts and beliefs, there was a fundamental problem with these accusations, which frequently take the form of critiques. In addition to insulting the Indian people’s intelligence, he continued, “these claims [about the state of Indian democracy] also underestimate their deep commitment to values like diversity and democracy.”
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