Constitution under threat, need of the hour is to protect it: Opposition

The basic ideas enshrined in the Constitution are under "threat" under the BJP-led government and it is the need of the hour to come together and protect it, Opposition leaders said Monday.

They also accused the NDA government of weakening the institutions of the country over the last four years.

In a convention organised by the Scheduled Caste department of the Congress on the occasion of Constitution Day, Congress leaders asserted that it is the only party that can save the 'Idea of India'.

Opposition leader Sharad Yadav said people of different castes, creed, religion and ethnicity reside in the country, and the Constitution had taken the composite culture of the nation into consideration.

But, as the republic grows older, its limits of democracy are being tested, Yadav said.

CPI leader D Raja said B R Ambedkar never wanted India to be a theocratic state, but efforts were being made to change it. He asserted that no change in the Constitution would be allowed.

Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat said the biggest challenge now was to preserve the essence of the Constitution.

He said speeches by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Union minister Anant Kumar Hegde about changing the Constitution were not a slip of tongue, but done intentionally.

Dubbing the Bharatiya Janata Party as 'Bhaichara Jalau Party' (the one who promotes friction in the society), Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda said the Centre was targeting every institution.

On December 11, he claimed, the result of the Assembly elections in five states would be a turning point in the history of the country under the leadership of the Congress and its president, Rahul Gandhi.

Former Union minister Jitin Prasada alleged that various institutions in the country were being trampled upon, be it the Reserve Bank of India or the Central Bureau of Investigation.

It is only the Congress that can preserve the idea of India, Prasada said.