Each day of last 10 years a murder of democracy: Congress

NEW DELHI: Accusing Modi government of celebrating each day of the past ten years as "Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas" with "undeclared emergency", Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said PM Narendra Modi has insulted Ambedkar by suffixing "murder" to a sacred word like "Constitution". He said the usage is reflective of BJP-RSS's desire to replace the Constitution with "manusmriti" and targeting the rights of Dalits, tribals and backwards.

AICC spokesman Jairam Ramesh mocked it as Modi's "another headline grabbing exercise in hypocrisy" since he is smarting from the "moral, political and personal defeat" in the polls which will go down in history as "Modi Mukti Diwas". "It is a PM for whom democracy means only demo-kursi," he added.

Kharge, in an open letter to the PM on X, said, "Defence of the Constitution does not sound good from your mouth... every moment in power, you have snatched self respect from every poor and deprived section of the country."

The Congress chief said when a BJP functionary urinates on a tribal in MP or when UP govt forcibly cremates a Dalit girl in Hathras, it is the "murder of the Constitution". He asked Modi to answer if it is not "Samvidhaan hatya" that six Dalit women are raped every day, "illegal bulldozer justice" is meted out to minorities with 1.5 lakh houses demolished rendering 7.38 lakh citizens homeless in two years, and when the PM does not like to visit Manipur despite the state being in the grip of violence for past 13 months.

As BJP devised the new offensive on emergency as a weapon to counter the opposition which has not let go of its election time charge that the ruling party is conspiring to junk the Constitution, Congress sought to keep the focus trained on Ambedkar and the marginalised sections where it finds the rival vulnerable - a tack that brought rich dividends to INDIA bloc in national polls.

Kharge said BJP-RSS-Jansangh never accepted the Constitution and the Organiser on Nov 30, 1949, derided it as bereft of Indianess, arguing that it shows the RSS as standing against Ambedkar and in favour of Manusmriti.