BJP damaging Constitution: PC

Chennai: The BJP was destroying the Constitution slowly using a hammer and chisel, said former finance minister P Chidambaram.

Speaking at the celebration of the 134th birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar, organised by the TNCC here on Sunday, Chidambaram said the BJP would have destroyed the Constitution completely if it had won more than 400 seats in 2024 Lok Sabha elections. People of the nation managed to stop that by giving BJP only 240 seats.

"But people should not presume that they have protected the Constitution by doing so. Instead of using a bulldozer, which was their original idea, the BJP was using a hammer and chisel and was destroying the Constitution little by little,'' he said. The BJP's moves, backed by RSS, in bringing CAA, the Waqf Act, and Immigration and Foreigners Act were part of this design, he said.

They were also destroying federalism using governors, he said.

AICC legal wing chairman Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who also addressed the meeting, said India is much more federal today than it was at the time of Independence 75 years ago. The Constitution has no mention of the word federalism, and federal mentioned in some of the Articles refers to the Supreme Court, he said.