BJP will never feel the need to change the Constitution’s basic structure: Rajnath Singh

The Bharatiya Janata Party will never feel the need to change the basic structure of the Constitution, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told The Hindu on Thursday.

“If, on certain matters, there is a feeling in the country that certain issues need to be addressed, then that can be done,” Singh said. “Amendments to the Constitution have been done under Congress governments in the past, while BJP governments have been more circumspect, and done amendments only to strengthen the integrity of institutions.”

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, at least three BJP leaders have hinted at major changes to the Constitution.

On March 9, BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde called on voters to ensure a two-thirds majority to his party in the Lok Sabha to enable amendments to the Constitution and undo the “unnecessary laws introduced to subjugate the Hindu community”. BJP leader Jyoti Mirdha on March 30 also said that the party needed an overwhelming majority in Parliament to change the Constitution.

On April 15, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lallu Singh purportedly said: “The government can be formed with 272 MPs in the Lok Sabha, but to make amendments to the Constitution, or to have a new Constitution, we need more than two-thirds majority.”

In its manifesto, the BJP has promised that it will implement the Uniform Civil Code across the country and also hold simultaneous Assembly and general elections.

“As far as UCC is concerned, those who have any misconceptions against it, we will try and persuade them,” Singh told The Hindu. “All progressive countries, in my view, have and should work towards a UCC.”

However, he added that India’s tribal communities would be exempted from it.

“There are some tribals who are particularly vulnerable, where governments have not been able to reach in the way that they have [to] other communities,” the defence minister said. “Their cultural and social interests have to be especially taken care of. Also, there are no blocks to people observing their culture and traditions, and religious customary rituals.”

The Uniform Civil Code, is a proposed common set of laws governing marriage, divorce, succession and adoption for all citizens. Currently, such personal affairs of different religious and tribal groups – except in Uttarakhand and Goa – are based on community-specific laws, largely derived from religious scripture.

Singh also clarified that his party has no plans of ending reservations in government jobs and education. “I firmly believe that we need reservations,” he said.

Congress leader and Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had claimed on Thursday that the BJP would scrap reservations for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes by 2025 if voted to power for a third term. Reddy alleged that the elections were a “referendum” on the continuation of reservations and that the Hindutva party was conspiring to do away with them.