‘Nehru amended Constitution, attacked freedom of expression’: PM Modi in Lok Sabha

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday hit out at Pandit Jawaharalal Nehru, accusing India’s first PM of “changing constitution’

“This country didn’t have an elected government from 1947 to 1952. A temporary system, a selected government was in place. Elections were not held. An interim government was in place until the elections. Before 1952, Rajya Sabha was also not formed. There were no elections in states as well,” the prime minister said in the Lok Sabha during a discussion on the ‘Glorious Journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India’.

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“There was no mandate by the people…In 1951, when there wasn’t an elected government, he amended the Constitution through an Ordinance. Right to Freedom of Expression was attacked…This was an insult to Constitution makers.”

“As soon as he saw an opportunity, he dealt a blow to Right to Express. This was a grave insult to Constitution makers. What could not be facilitated in the Constituent Assembly, he facilitated through the back door, and that too when he was not the PM of an elected government. He committed a sin,” the prime minister said.

“Pandit Nehru had his constitution. He did not listen to his senior colleagues. In the past six decades, the Constitution was changed 75 times,” the BJP X handle quoted PM Modi as saying.

“The seeds sown by the first prime minister (Pandit JL Nehru) in changing the Constitution was followed up by another prime minister, that was Indira Gandhi, who even overturned a verdict of the Supreme Court in 1971. She even clipped the wings of courts through Constitutional amendments to capture judiciary,” the prime minister was quoted by PTI as saying.

Prime Minister Modi also attacked Congress on the Emergency, proclaimed during the rule of Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi in 1975.

“When the country was witnessing 25 years of Constitution, at the same time Constitution in our country was razed. Emergency was imposed, democractic systems were finished, country was turned into a prison, citizens’s rights were looted, press freedom was locked up,” Modi said.

(With PTI, ANI inputs)