The leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “lying” in Parliament, pointing out that the RSS and the BJP’s forefathers had “fiercely opposed the Constitution of India”.

Kharge had tried to set the record straight during Modi’s reply to the discussion on the motion of thanks to the President’s address in the Rajya Sabha. When repeated efforts to intervene did not bear the desired result, Kharge led an Opposition
walkout 30 minutes into the Prime Minister’s speech.

Between Tuesday and Wednesday, Modi repeatedly tried to project the Congress as anti-Constitution and against the chairman of its drafting committee, Babasaheb Ambedkar.

His speech was seen by many as an apparent bid to avenge the losses the BJP suffered in the Lok Sabha elections because of the Opposition’s narrative on the Constitution which instilled an apprehension that it could be amended to do away with reservations if the Modi government got a big mandate for a third straight term.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, however, called the Opposition walkout an insult to the Constitution. When Modi was speaking, Kharge raised his hands several times to intervene. However, when Dhankhar did not allow him to speak, the Opposition walked out in the middle of Modi’s speech.

“The country is watching. Those involved in spreading lies have no strength to listen to the truth. They are insulting the Upper House and its tradition,” Modi said. Dhankhar said he had allowed Kharge to speak without any disturbance yet the Opposition walked out.

“They left behind the tradition of the House and showed their back to the Constitution. There cannot be more insult to the Constitution than this. I condemn their conduct. They have outraged the spirit of the Constitution and disregarded the oath they have taken,” Dhankhar said.

Briefing reporters later and in a post on X, Kharge said: “INDIA parties walked out of the Rajya Sabha because PM Modi was lying. He claims that we are against the Constitution but the truth is that the BJP-RSS, Jansangh and their political forefathers had fiercely opposed the Constitution of India.

“They had burnt the effigies of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru at that time. This is a shameful thing and an affront to democratic values. The truth is Dr Ambedkar had given the credit of drafting the Constitution to the Congress party,” Kharge said.

Stating that he had wanted to place these facts on record in the Rajya Sabha, Kharge cited two quotations to prove his point.

“The Organiser (November 30, 1949, page number 3), the organ of the RSS, gave vent to its ideas regarding Manusmriti: ‘In our Constitution, there is no mention of the unique constitutional developments in ancient Bharat. Manu’s laws were written long before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day, laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity.
But to our constitutional pandits (read Ambedkar) that means nothing.”

The second quote was from Ambedkar’s concluding remarks in the Constituent Assembly on the Constitution on November 25, 1949. “I was therefore greatly surprised when the Assembly elected me to the drafting committee. I was more than surprised when the drafting committee elected me to be its chairman. There were in the drafting committee men bigger, better and more competent than myself… It is because of the discipline of the Congress party that the drafting committee was able to pilot the Constitution in the Assembly with the sure knowledge as to the fate of each article and each amendment. The Congress party is, therefore, entitled to all the credit for the smooth sailing of the draft constitution in the Assembly.”

TMC MP Sushmita Dev, too, accused the PM of lying in the House.