Chidambaram on Anantkumar Hegde's 'Rewriting Indian Constitution' statement

New Delhi: After Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Anantkumar Hegde's statement regarding "rewriting the Indian Constitution" caused a political flutter senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said that the "BJP's intention" to amend the Constitution was "never a secret."

"The BJP's intention to amend the Constitution was never a secret Dozens of BJP leaders in private conversations have said that India must be a Hindu Rashtra, that Hindi must be the sole official language of India and the central government must be strong and prevail over the state governments," Chidambaram said in a post on 'X' in an attack at the BJP.

Chidambaram said that Hegde's controversial statement and then going back on it is an "old ploy" just to "enthuse" the party cadres.

The senior Congress leader warned that amending the Constitution will signal an end of Parliamentary democracy, Federalism and rights of the Minorities.

"If the Constitution is amended according to the RSS/BJP agenda, that will be the end of Parliamentary democracy, Federalism, rights of the Minorities, and the English language being one of the two official languages," Chidambaram said.

Earlier, Ananthkumar Hegde had said the BJP must gain a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha and also come to power in more than 20 States to "amend the Constitution".

The BJP on Sunday distanced itself from Hegde's statement saying that his views on the Constitution are his personal and that the party have sought a response from the Karnataka MP.

(ANI)