New Delhi: The Indian Constitution emerged from the civilisational traditions of dialogue and discussion, principles that the ruling dispensation “abhor”, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have failed to realise that the Samvidhaan was not ‘Sangh ka Vidhaan’, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said Friday in her debut speech in the Lok Sabha.

In a much anticipated speech that lasted nearly 40 minutes, Priyanka said over the past decade, under the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a blanket of fear has shrouded the country. But the “nature of fear” was such that it has now afflicted the ruling party too, prompting it to “run away” from answering questions in the Parliament, she said.

Priyanka claimed had the BJP’s numbers not come down in the 2024 general election, “they would have changed the Constitution”.

“The Constitution is a ‘suraksha kavach’ (protective shield) for the principles of justice, harmony, unity, equality, and freedom of speech. But the ruling side has been chipping away at that protective shield,” she said, in a speech that was largely measured barring a few flashes of aggression, which invited some interruptions from the treasury benches.

“Had the Lok Sabha polls not thrown up these numbers, they would have changed the Constitution. Only by nearly losing did they realise that this country will not accept any talk of changing the Constitution,” she said.

As Priyanka spoke, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh were present in the House among other senior leaders of the BJP. The PM’s absence did not escape Priyanka’s attention though.

“I am new to this House. But I could spot him for not more than 10 minutes in the last 15 days…in our childhood, all of us heard a story about a king mingling with the people by disguising himself as a commoner. Today’s King changes clothes for sure, it is something he takes great interest in, but has no courage to either listen to criticism, or go to the people,” she said, without naming Modi.

The spread of “hatred and disharmony” is another count on which Priyanka directly targeted the prime minister.

“The Constitution is meant to be a protective guard for unity and harmony. This is where the seeds of hatred and suspicion are being sown, shattering that shield. The prime minister touches the Constitution to his forehead, but when there are cries for justice from Sambhal, Hathras, Manipur, he seems unperturbed. Perhaps, he has not realised that ‘Bharat ka Samvidhaan, Sangh ka Vidhaan nahi hai’,” she said.

Unlike the speeches of her brother Rahul Gandhi extensively featuring the PM’s alleged omissions and commissions, Priyanka sought to paint a broader canvas, and illustrate her points by highlighting snippets of her conversations with victims of atrocities, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, a state where she has been politically active to revive the fortunes of the Congress.

She referred to her meeting with the family of the Unnao rape victim, the widow of Dalit sanitation worker Arun Valmiki who died in police custody in Agra, and her recent interaction with the victims of violence-hit families in Sambhal, including two Muslim children. Priyanka said in all these conversations she found that the Constitution acts as the fountain of strength for ordinary people.

It was essentially seen as Priyanka’s strategic outreach, from the floor of the House, to marginalised communities, echoing the Pichde, Dalit & Alpasankhyak (PDA)—OBCs, Dalits and Minorities—narrative of the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party.

Priyanka said the current dispensation speaks of the past instead of the present to hide its failures. “Is Jawaharlal Nehru responsible for everything?” she said, extolling India’s first prime minister for his contributions in the freedom struggle and building a young nation.

“They often talk about the 75 years. But they should know that the flames of hope and aspirations that the Constitution embodies never faded from the hearts of people in all these years, the dialogue never stopped. But today, people are threatened and coerced into silence. This government has gone after its critics in the name of hunting anti-nationals. Such an atmosphere of fear prevailed during the British Raj,” the first- time MP said.

Referring to the BJP’s repeated invocations of the excesses during the Emergency, Priyanka said, “Why don’t you learn from it? You talk about political justice and go on a spree of bringing down democratically elected governments in Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Goa. Was the Constitution not applicable then? You (BJP) have been reduced to a washing machine and people laugh at that.”

The Congress MP also said that if the BJP had some courage, it should reinstate paper ballots in elections, a demand that she had also placed in the meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) held in November.

Her speech also featured the Congress’s pet themes of a demand for a nation-wide caste census and alleged favours granted to the Adani business conglomerate by the Centre. “From ports, railways, factories, roads, to government companies and mines, everything is being handed over to one person. There is a growing impression that the government works only for Adani,” she said.

(Edited by Tony Rai)

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