It appears that troubles have not ended for central minister Anantkumar Hegde over his remarks about changing the Constitution. In a new development, a police complaint has been filed against him at the Whitefield Police Station in Bengaluru.
T Nagesh, a Congress leader, and Prakash, who is part of the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti, filed the police complaint over Hegde’s remarks against the Constitution, which was made at a speech in Koppal earlier this week.
The police complaint comes just days after the Minister of State for Skill Development had said that the Constitution should be changed.
“I respect the Constitution but the Constitution has changed according to the times on many occasions in the past and it will change in the future. We are here to change the Constitution,” Hegde had said.
He stated this after saying that “a new tradition was in vogue” where people projected themselves as secular. He said he would welcome it if someone “claims with pride that he is a Muslim, or a Christian, or a Lingayat, or a Brahmin, or a Hindu.”
On Thursday, a massive uproar erupted in the Parliament over his statements. Opposition party leaders demanded an apology from Hegde, and several Congress leaders, led by All India Congress Committee President Rahul Gandhi, protested outside the Parliament near the Gandhi statue and demanded that Hegde be ousted from the House.
Amidst the uproar, Anantkumar Hedge clarified on his remarks against secularism, the Constitution, Parliament and Babasaheb Ambedkar.
“As for Babasaheb (BR Ambedkar) … there is no doubt that my faith in the Constitution is any less; it is paramount (document) for me… and so is the Parliament. There is no need to put a question mark on it. As a citizen, I can never go against the Constitution. That’s all I can say,” Hegde had said.
Yet the minister’s clarification does not appear to have appeased protestors who gathered outside the Whitefield Police Station and filed a police complaint against him.
Hegde is no stranger to controversy. In an earlier speech in the Parivartana Yatra in Kundapur in November, the BJP leader had sarcastically suggested that the Congress government will soon start celebrating terrorists like Ajmal Kasab and Osama bin Laden.
“Today, they will celebrate Tipu Jayanti, then Hyder Ali, then Afzal Guru, Ajmal Kasab and bin Laden,” he had said.
In 2016, Hegde had reportedly told mediapersons that there will be terrorism in the world as long as Islam exists.
“Until we eradicate Islam from the world we will not be able to eliminate terrorism from the world. Islam is a bomb placed to disrupt world peace. As long as there is Islam, there will be no peace in the world,” he was quoted as saying.