People's Democracy

THE BJP is behaving as the thief caught in the act.. The uncalled for caustic attacks on the President for some of his remarks in his Address to the Nation, on the eve of Republic Day, is, to say the least, grossly unbecoming. The BJP is peeved that the President has not only defended the Republican Constitution and its parliamentary system, but, in the process, has also exposed the BJP’s hidden agenda of changing the nature of the Constitution into an authoritarian one that would be more conducive to the setting up of the RSS vision of a rabidly intolerant "Hindu Rashtra".

First, the BJP Vice-President Jana Krishnamurthy, then the BJP President Bangaru Laxman, have dared to castigate the President, K.R. Narayanan, for the very pertinent comments in his Address. In justifiably defending the present Constitution, the President was only echoing the sentiments of the overwhelming majority of our people. It is, indeed, gratifying that the President chose to assuage the feelings of millions of Indians who were perturbed and stunned by the anti-democratic recommendations of the Constitutional Review Committee set up by the Vajpayee government in violation of constitutional propriety. The Prime Minister’s later suggestion of fixed terms for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, only deepened the grave apprehensions that these recommendations had created in the minds of the public.

Under these circumstances, the President’s reiteration of the fundamental reasoning behind the preference provided in our Constitution for "responsibility and accountability" over "stability", was not only timely, but necessary.

The BJP should know that the people of India will not accept any tampering with the Republican Constitution in pursuit of the RSS objective of converting this secular democratic republic into a rabidly intolerant "Hindu Rashtra", by changing the Constitution.

The country is grateful to the President for this defence of the Constitution, on the occasion of the conclusion of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Republic.