Those carrying copies of the Constitution everywhere are the “killers of the Constitution”, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath said on Friday without mentioning names.

“Those enacting the drama of respecting the Constitution by carrying a copy of it wherever they go are the killers of the Constitution. They are the real enemies of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar,” he said here at an event to mark the death anniversary of Ambedkar, who had chaired the Constitution drafting committee.

Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, has for the past few months been carrying a copy of the Constitution with him and showing it to people at meetings. He has been claiming that the Narendra Modi government wants to change the Constitution or scrap it altogether.

The Congress MP had held up a copy of the Constitution at the Ghazipur border between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh when he was stopped by the police from visiting violence-torn Sambhal town on Wednesday. “The New India (that Modi promotes) wants to destroy Ambedkarji’s Constitution,” Rahul had said.

Four people died in Sambhal on November 24 when a mob clashed with police during the survey of a mosque to ascertain whether it was built over the ruins of a demolished temple.

“These people (the Congress) had tried to finish off the Constitution by imposing the Emergency in 1975 and tampering with it (the Constitution) by changing its Preamble, considered its soul, in 1976. People should be reminded of these things,” Adityanath said.

Last month, the Supreme Court had rejected a batch of petitions — including one from BJP leader Subramanian Swamy — that challenged the inclusion of the terms “socialist” and “secular” in the Preamble through the 42nd constitutional amendment in 1976.

Upholding the amendment, the country’s highest court said that secularism was “intricately woven” into the basic feature of the Constitution and was a facet of the right to equality, allowing all to follow their religion freely. The term “socialist” underlines the State’s commitment to economic justice and equality of opportunity, it added.

Adityanath said Hindus were suffering in Bangladesh and Pakistan because of the Partition.

“The fanatics in Bangladesh are attacking and killing Hindus, Buddhists and other minority communities. Their properties are being burnt and their women are being dishonoured. Why did such a situation arise?” he asked the gathering, made up mostly of BJP workers.

“Remember, such things will continue till the jinn of (Muhammad Ali) Jinnah exists on this earth…. The distorted face of sin that the country witnessed during the Partition in 1947 has resurfaced now in Bangladesh.”

He continued: “The Hindus and Buddhists killed there belonged to the Dalit community…. Ambedkar had warned the country in 1946-47 to prevent the Partition, or if it had to happen, to do it completely.”

The BJP and the RSS claim their forebears did not support the Partition and later — when Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress approved the country’s division in consultation with Jinnah and the British — they wanted all Hindus to migrate to India and Muslims to Pakistan.

The Congress claims that the Hindu Mahasabha, led by Hindu Rashtra proponent V.D. Savarkar, and the RSS never participated in the freedom struggle and that Savarkar supported the Partition.

“There was a sizeable population of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1947. Hindus were 22 per cent in Bangladesh till 1971. Today this has come down to 7-8 per cent. It may go down further if the massacre continues,” Adityanath said.