India is a mature democracy, with sufficient checks and balances to prevent any attempt by any party or a group of parties to undermine the basic structure and ideals of the Constitution. The only time an attempt was made to run roughshod over the Constitution was during the Emergency rule imposed by the Congress government in 1975-77, but that too was foiled by the democratic will of the Indian people. After all, what is being proposed is a mere study and a review, based on the widest possible debate in Parliament and in the country as a whole. Democracy functions through the will of the people. Debates and discussions are an inseparable part of this function.
Parliament has the power to reject any amendment by even less than majority.
We cannot understand why the Congress party should be so opposed to a debate, especially when it has itself meddled with the Constitution 79 times. The only reason for the Congress party's opposition is its fear that the public debate on the subject would expose its long saga of misrule and misdeeds. We would like all our critics to know that the commitment to set up a commission to review the Constitution was an important plank in the common manifesto of the National Democratic Alliance, based on which we fought the Lok Sabha elections and won the people's mandate. The BJP calls upon all the political parties, intellectuals, social activists and all the democracy-loving people of the country to join this endeavour to strengthen the Constitution. New Delhi 110 001.