Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a poll rally in Rajasthan on Friday, attacked the opposition parties for alleging that the BJP will “change the Constitution” if it wins the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. PM Modi said that his government revered it and even Babasaheb Ambedkar would not be able to abolish it now.

PM Modi said during an election rally in Barmer, “The Constitution of the country is everything for the (BJP) government and even if Babasaheb Ambedkar himself comes, he cannot abolish the Constitution.” The prime minister also alleged that the Congress was standing with anti-national forces and hit out at the opposition INDIA bloc for “trying to weaken” the country.

Hitting back at the INDIA bloc, PM Modi further alleged that the Congress party is making attempts to “destroy the Constitution” by trying to impose an emergency in the country.

The prime minister said, “The Congress tried to destroy the Constitution by imposing Emergency in the country and now it is taking cover in the name of the Constitution to abuse Modi.”

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had last month alleged that the “ultimate goal of Narendra Modi and the BJP is to destroy Babasaheb’s Constitution” after BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde’s statement that the party needs a two-thirds majority to amend the Constitution.

The BJP had dubbed Hegde’s remarks “personal opinion” and sought clarification from him.

PM Modi, without being specific, said that the Congress party wrote in its manifesto for the upcoming elections about nuclear disarmament.

“Should a country like India, whose neighbours on both sides have nuclear weapons, think about eliminating nuclear weapons? I want to ask the Congress, on whose instructions your INDI alliance is working,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed a poll rally in Tamil Nadu where he once again accused the BJP of attempting to change the Constitution of India if it is elected in power. Gandhi alleged that the saffron party openly stated that “they are going to change the Constitution” if they retained power at the Centre.

While the rest of the world earlier looked at India as a beacon of democracy; now it is of the view that India’s democracy is no longer a democracy, the former Congress president alleged.

(With inputs from PTI)