Reacting to the Congress's claim that the Constitution was "forced" on Goa citizens after its liberation from Portuguese rule in 1961, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the party of "insulting" B.R. Ambedkar's Constitution.
Congress's South Goa candidate Viriato Fernandes on Tuesday raked up a controversy by saying that the Indian Constitution was "forced" on Goa after its liberation from Portuguese rule in 1961.
While addressing a rally in Chhattisgarh, Modi said that Congress is attempting to break the country. "The Congress party has been indulging in appeasement since day one after independence," he said.
"Congress is not able to digest the participation of Dalits, Adivasis, and backward classes in power...Earlier a Congress MP from Karnataka said south India should be declared a separate country, now a Congress candidate from Goa said the Indian Constitution is not applicable in Goa…He is saying the Constitution was forced on Goa…Isn't this an insult to Babasaheb Ambedkar? Isn't this an insult to the Constitution?" asked Modi.
Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi, Modi said that the Congress candidate made this statement publicly which meant he had the support of his leader.
"It's a ploy to break the country. A huge part of the country has rejected Congress, and therefore the party wants to create such small islands...Congress today rejected the Constitution in Goa, and tomorrow it would do the same in the entire country," he added.
While referring to a conversation with Rahul Gandhi in 2019, Fernandes said that, "We raised 12 demands before Gandhi and one of them was about dual citizenship".
"I explained to him that the Indian Constitution came into force on January 26, 1950. When Goa was liberated from Portuguese rule in 1961...We were not included in it," said Fernandes while addressing an election rally in South Goa.
