Oppn says sack Ananth Kumar Hegde, govt disowns remarks

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government on Wednesday quickly disowned the controversial remarks of Ananth Kumar Hegde, Union minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship, about changing the Constitution and about secularists, after the Opposition created a huge ruckus in Parliament demanding that he be sacked for “disrespecting” the Constitution and Dr B.R. Ambedkar, the “Father of the Constitution”. Both Houses witnessed repeated adjournments despite the Chair requesting the Opposition members to allow the proceedings to take place. The Opposition members even trooped into the well of both Houses, shouting slogans like “Baba Saheb ka apman nahin sahega Hindustan (The nation will not tolerate disrespect towards Baba Saheb Ambedkar)”.

“I want to clarify that the government is committed to the Constitution and we do not agree with what the minister (Hegde) had said,” MoS parliamentary affairs Vijay Goel said in the Rajya Sabha, that witnessed two adjournments till 2 pm.

Mr Hegde had reportedly said on Sunday at an event in Koppal district of Karnataka that people should identify themselves by their religion and “those who, without knowing about their parental blood, call themselves secular, they don’t have their own identity... they don’t know about their parentage”. He also said: “We are here to change the Constitution and we’ll change it.” Assembly elections are due early next year in Karnataka, which is now ruled by a Congress government.

Leading the Opposition’s attack in the Upper House, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the MoS skill development needed to clarify his remarks as he was present in the House and that if he does not believe in the Indian Constitution, he has no right to be a Member of Parliament or a minister.

His views were echoed by the CPI(M)’s T.K. Rangarajan, the Samajwadi Party’s Naresh Agarwal and Trinamul Congress’ Sukhendu Sekhar Ray.

Amid the Opposition’s slogan-shouting, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu also allowed the BJP’s Subramanian Swamy to speak, who said Dr Ambedkar had not included the word “secularism” in the Constitution and that the Opposition had no right to “drag his name” into the issue, saying that previous Congress governments had “denied the Bharat Ratna year after year to Dr Ambedkar”. His statement only intensified the protests by the Opposition, forcing the Chair to adjourn the House. The term “secular” was incorporated in the Preamble of the Constitution through the 42nd Amendment in 1976 during the Emergency.

Earlier, MoS social justice Ramdas Athawale led the treasury benches’ counter-attack, saying that during Congress rule, even Dr Ambedkar’s portrait was not put up in Parliament’s Central Hall, and said they were doing all the “tamasha” (ruckus) as they have lost the recent Assembly polls and would continue to lose the coming elections, including the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“After I realised that they (Congress) are disrespecting Baba Saheb, I left them and joined them (the BJP),” said Mr Athawale.

In the Lok Sabha, the Opposition virtually paralysed the proceedings demanding action against Mr Hegde. Raising the issue, the Congress’ Mallikarjun Kharge said the minister had compared those supporting secularism to “children of unknown parentage”, besides denigrating Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution.

Parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar claimed that Mr Kharge was trying to distort what Mr Hegde had said. “B.R. Ambedkar is the Father of the Constitution and we respect him. We request the Opposition to not disrupt proceedings,” he said, accusing the Congress of indulging in “pseudo-secularism”.

Later, former Union minister and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor tweeted, while replying to another Twitter handle: “Many have pointed out that the Constitution has been amended 100+ times. Govt is fully entitled to propose amendments. It is the intent that matters. The Hindutvavadis reject the idea that our nation is a territory & all the people in it. They want HinduRashtra: a Hindu Pakistan.”