BJP makes noise, doesn't have courage to change Constitution: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday, 17 March, claimed the ruling BJP makes "lot of noise" but does not have enough courage to "change" the Constitution, and asserted that the truth and the country's people are on his side.

Notably, Karnataka BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde recently said his party needed a two-third majority in both houses of Parliament to amend the Constitution and “set right the distortions and unnecessary additions made to it by the Congress”. The BJP subsequently moved to defuse the row sparked by Hegde's remarks, terming them his "personal opinion" and seeking a clarification from him.

Gandhi was addressing a gathering in a hall in Mumbai after taking out a 'Nyay Sankalp Padyatra' from Mani Bhavan, Mahatma Gandhi's home in Mumbai, to the August Kranti Maidan, where the Quit India movement was launched in 1942 during India’s struggle for independence from British rule.

"The BJP makes a lot of noise, but it does not have enough courage to change the Constitution. Truth and the people's support are on our side," he said.

The Lok Sabha member from Wayanad said the current fight is between two "expressions", not just between the BJP and the Congress. "One thinks the country should run centrally, where one person possesses all the knowledge. Contrary to this, we think there should be decentralisation of power, and people's voices should be heard," Gandhi said.

If a person holds an IIT degree, it does not make him/her more knowledgeable than a farmer, he added. But the BJP does not function like this, the Congress MP said. "(Prime Minister) Modi and the RSS have a vision that knowledge lies with one person... farmers, labourers and unemployed youth have no knowledge," he said.

On Saturday, the Congress MP concluded his 63-day Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Mumbai by paying tribute to Dr B.R. Ambedkar at his memorial Chaityabhoomi in central Mumbai, and reading the Preamble to the Constitution. The yatra, a mass outreach movement ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, commenced from strife-torn Manipur on 14 January.