'It was Indira Gandhi, who changed the Preamble, BJP would never do that': Rajnath Singh
New Delhi: It was Indira Gandhi, who changed the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would neither alter the Preamble nor end reservation, Defence Minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh has said.
"In 1976, the first time a change was made to the Preamble to the Indian Constitution. And that was done by Indira Gandhi," Singh told NDTV in an interview.
The Preamble is considered the soul of our Constitution as it serves as a guiding principle for interpreting the Constitution. Whenever there is uncertainty or doubt in understanding any part of the Constitution, the matter is resolved in light of the Preamble.
"And our constituent assembly was then of the consensus that amendments can be made to the Constitution as required. Congress and other political parties have done this a lot. But there is no question of making changes in the preamble. But they did it, and are now trying to blame us. The BJP does not even think about it," Singh added.
Rajnath Singh's remarks come in the wake of claims by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that the BJP will "tear up and throw away" the Constitution if it remains in power.
Some other Congress leaders have also raised an alarm that the BJP may remove the word "secularism" from the Preamble to the Constitution.
He underscored that the BJP would never remove caste-based reservation but would not introduce reservations based on religion.
"Why would we end reservation? This country needs reservation for OBC, ST. They (Opposition) are the ones talking about giving reservations on the basis of religion. But we say that in no situation will we give religion-based reservation as the Constitution does not allow it," the Defence Minister said.
The BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is eyeing a third term. So far, six of the seven phases of voting for the Lok Sabha elections have concluded.
Results will be announced on June 4 after the final round of voting on June 1.
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