Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Slams Congress For 'Vote Bank Politics', Says BJP Will Not Change Preamble, Reservation

In an interview to PTI, Singh blasted the Congress for spreading "canards" that the BJP will change the Constitution if it returns to power and especially asserted that there was no question of changing the Preamble of the Constitution.

His assurance that the Preamble will not be changed addresses concerns among critics that the word 'secular' to describe India could be removed by the BJP.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been alleging that the BJP will "tear up and throw away" the Constitution if it retains power. Some other Congress functionaries had expressed apprehensions that the BJP may drop the word "secularism" from the Preamble of the Constitution.

"The Congress brought constitutional amendments 80 times. They changed the Preamble during the Emergency," the defence minister said.

"The BJP will never change the Constitution. Constitution makers never imagined that there would be changes in the Preamble. You (Congress) only acted to hurt the core idea of the Constitution," he said.

"There is no question of changing the Preamble of the Constitution. They changed it and now they are making baseless allegations against us," Singh added.

The Preamble to the Constitution of India presents the principles of the Constitution

The 42nd Amendment in 1976 changed the description of India from a "sovereign democratic republic" to a "sovereign, socialist secular democratic republic".

"They (Congress) are trying to get peoples' support by instilling fear among the citizens," Singh said.

"I would suggest that they should try to get people's support by creating confidence and not by instilling fear. Electoral campaigns should be based on facts," he said.

On Friday, Rahul Gandhi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and RSS are attacking India's democracy continuously and want to "destroy" the country's Constitution.

"The Congress is creating fear psychosis and resorting to spreading misinformation for vote bank politics," the senior BJP leader said.

On the issue of reservation also, he alleged that the Congress is misleading the nation.

The Congress is trying to mislead people. There will not be any end to reservation. They are making false allegations against us," Singh said.

The Congress has also asked the BJP leaders to clear the party's stance on whether it would remove the 50 per cent cap on reservation for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, and the Other Backward Classes.

"We will not tinker with the reservation at all," Singh said when asked about the Congress' call to clarify on the 50 per cent cap.