Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Monday clarified his purported remarks on ‘changing the Constitution’ and accused the BJP of misquoting him and that he never said we are going to change it.
“I am a sensible, senior politician, than Mr Nadda. I have been in the Assembly for the last 36 years. I have basic common sense. I have said casually that there will be so many changes after various judgments. As per the quota of the backward classes, reservation has been given. I have not said that we are going to change the Constitution. Whatever they are quoting is wrong. They are miscarrying it,” he told a news agency.
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The Karnataka deputy CM further said that it was the Congress that brought the Constitution and warned of taking a breach of privilege on this.
“We are a national party…It is our party that brought the Constitution to this country…I will take a breach of privilege on this. I will fight a case. They are misquoting me…,” he added.
His clarification came after the BJP raised the issue in Rajya Sabha, with party president JP Nadda saying that the grand old party, ‘which claims to be the protector of the Constitution’, is tearing it apart.
“Those who claim to be the protectors of the Constitution are the very ones tearing it apart. Dr B R Ambedkar clearly stated in the Constitution that reservation will not be based on religion. This is an accepted principle of the Indian Constitution. However, the Karnataka government in the South granted 4 per cent reservation for Muslims in contracts….This is not acceptable,” Nadda said in the Rajya Sabha, leading to a ruckus and the adjournment of the Upper House.
What did DK Shivakumar say?
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, often hailed as the troubleshooter of the Congress, has gone from fixer to flounder with his remarks on the Constitution.
In a purported video shared by BJP national Spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla on X, Shivakumar is heard talking about changing the constitution to grant religion-based reservations when “a good day comes.”
When asked about the criticism and the Constitution not allowing reservation based on religion, replied Shivakumar, “Yes I agree…but let us see, let us watch… we have started something… I know that everyone will go the court.. let us wait for a good day… a good day will come, lot of changes will be there… CONSTITUTION WILL BE CHANGING… there are judgments which alter the Constitution also.”
