At the parliament discussion on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Constitution’s adoption, at least a dozen parliamentary legislators representing religious and linguistic minorities, Dalits, Adivasis and Backward Classes made emotionally stirring appeals for constitutional protection against the Modi government’s illegal actions over the last decade.

Many of them faced reprimands from the presiding officers for being unparliamentary in their speeches, yet they persevered in putting out their constituents’ grievances and highlighting the distance between Modi’s actions and his slogan “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas”—Support from all, and development for all.

Modi’s own speech on the occasion offered nothing to assuage the legislators’ anxieties and fears. He focussed on the misdeeds of past Congress-led governments. He recalled the imposition of Emergency by the Indira Gandhi government in 1975. He also accused Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister, of amending the Constitution for personal gains.

Read Sagar's notes on how the minority legislators rued the erosion of the Constitution under the Modi government: