Modi rejects talk of amending Constitution, says confident about 3rd term

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rejected any talk of amending the Constitution as meaningless and said his government’s “most transformative steps” have been realised without doing so and through public participation.

In an interview with the British business daily Financial Times (FT), Modi cited the “transformative steps”—from a “Clean India” nationwide toilet-building campaign to bringing nearly 1bn people online through a path-breaking digital public infrastructure push.

Modi said people realise that the nation is on “the cusp of a take-off” and that he is “very confident of victory” in the 2024 national polls. “They want this flight to be expedited, and they know the best party to ensure this is the one which brought them this far,” he told FT in what the paper described as a rare interview and additional written responses.

Modi cited his government’s record “of solid change in the common man’s life” and said the people have different aspirations from the ones they had 10 years back.

The comments came days after the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returned to power in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and retained it in Madhya Pradesh in a major boost ahead of the national polls due to be held in summer of next year.

FT noted a third-term victory would be a vindication for Modi’s legions of supporters, who say he has built India’s economy and global esteem, improved hundreds of millions of people’s lives, and put the majority Hindu religion at the centre of public life. It added the Congress-led Opposition has joined forces in an alliance under the acronym INDIA, which promises to “safeguard democracy and the constitution” in the face of what they say is an attack on the secular principles of the country’s founders.

FT said critics have accused Modi’s government of cracking down on rivals, curtailing civil society, and discriminating against the country’s large Muslim minority.

The BJP has rejected the claims of democratic backsliding even as FT said they have alarmed some observers in India and overseas when leaders around the world are betting heavily on the country as a geopolitical and economic partner.

FT noted Modi’s opponents worry that he would use a third-term victory, especially if the BJP wins a large majority, to shred secular values irrevocably, possibly by amending the Constitution to make India an explicitly Hindu republic.

Modi said the BJP’s critics were entitled to their opinions and the freedom to express them but there is a fundamental issue with such allegations, which often appear as criticisms. “These claims [concerns over the health of Indian democracy] not only insult the intelligence of the Indian people but also underestimate their deep commitment to values like diversity and democracy,” he said.