In the months leading up to the Lok Sabha elections, the biggest charge leveled by the opposition against Narendra Modi’s government was that India’s constitution was under threat and key institutions were under threat.
Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, Mallikarjun Kharge, and a host of opposition leaders told voters why they should vote for the INDI alliance Bloc to “save the Constitution”.
But sometime in the middle of the seven-phase general elections, Prime Minister Modi turned the tables and used the opposition’s weapon against them. He said on Thursday While addressing an election rally in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur that they should vote for the BJP if they want to save the Constitution, democracy, and reservation. But how did the prime minister change the opposition’s Brahmastra?
Muslim Quantum Created Etency
At the end of April, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi reiterated that this is an election to save democracy, reservation, the Constitution and the rights of the poor. “Look, earlier Narendra Modi said, ‘400 pair’ (for 400+ seats). Now he says, ‘400 pair’?
There are claims that ‘we are not against the Constitution, we are not against reservations, we are not against democracy.” Why? Because they found out that the people of the country understood the real thing the people of the country understood that these people want to tear away the constitution and the rights of the poor,” he said.
But at the same time, the BJP has ignited a controversy in Karnataka, setting the stage for how the party will turn its arguments to the opposition in the coming days. The Chief Minister spoke about how reservations are being made to the Muslims of Karnataka against the ethos of the Constitution and those who deserve it are being robbed.
Around the same time Gandhi accused the BJP of undermining the Constitution, Modi spoke at a rally in Telangana’s medal district, saying, “They (Congress) want to subvert the Constitution for their constituency. But I want them to know that as long as I live, I will not let them reserve Dalits, SCs, STs and OBCs for Muslims in the name of religion by recreating the counter-narrative of saving the Constitution”.
The Congress, Samajwadi Party and Trinamool Congress support reservations based on religion. In fact, the Samajwadi Party has even demanded constitutional amendments to give proportional reservations to Muslims. This shows that they want to change reservations completely unconstitutionally,” says a spokesperson of BJP Shehzad Poonawalla.
OBC Quota turns the tables
The order of Calcutta High Court, passed after two phases of voting, made the INDI alliance bloc completely uncomfortable. The order canceled all certificates issued in West Bengal since 2010 to various Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories, calling them “illegal”.
Interestingly, here too there was an angle of relaxation which the BJP did not fail to explore and exploit. There are 179 castes in the state list of OBC castes in West Bengal. According to Hansraj Ahir, chairman of the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), there are 118 Muslim communities.
Within hours of the verdict, the Prime Minister trained his guns not only on the TMC but also on the entire opposition. He termed the judgment as a “blow to the INDI alliance” as the TMC gave OBC certificates to Muslims for their “vote bank politics”.
What helped the BJP intensify its tirade was the immediate reaction of West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC Supremo Mamata Banerjee, who said she “does not agree with the order”. “I respect the courts. But I don’t agree with the decision that Muslims should be kept out of OBC reservation. OBC reservations will continue.
We will approach the high court, if necessary,” Banerjee announced. Senior BJP leader and Union home minister Amit Shah immediately responded and asked, “Mamata ji said we will not accept the Supreme Court’s decision. I want to ask the people of Bengal, can there be such a prime minister who says that we are not following the court order?
The election began with the opposition fearing that an absolute majority would help the BJP change the constitution. In late May, Prime Minister Modi struck the same note against the opposition. Addressing polling in UP’s Mirzapur, PM Modi alleged that the opposition had decided to “amend the constitution” to make reservations for Muslims.
Addressing another rally in Purvannchal, he spoke of three “conspiracies”. Referring to the former, he said, “People from the INDI union are changing the constitution and rewriting it so that there should be reservation based on religion in India.”.
