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Constitution not to blame for instability, says V P Singh

Former prime minister V P Singh on Monday said the political instability in the country was due to the weak socio-political and economic basis of the society and it could not be checked or altered by reviewing the Constitution.

Addressing a Press Conference, he said the Constitution should not be merely treated as a ''legal book'', rather a document of ''aspiration of the people''.

Maintaining that the move by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to review the Constitution was ''full of suspicions'', he alleged that particularly the mode to be adopted for this purpose was ''undemocratic''.

''It would be a political dishonesty to ignore Parliament. The people's representatives should be involved in the discussion of the proposed review of the Constitution. It should be a political obligation,'' Singh said, asking that if the Vajpayee government would in future call experts and others in the cabinet meeting to decide various matters and fate of the country.

Terming the proposed step to review the Constitution as a ''great danger to the country'', the former prime minister called upon alliance partners to rise to the occasion in opposing the "BJP's gameplan.''

Opposing the move for a presidential form of government, he said the NDA members should ponder what would be their fate in case of shift to the presidential form in India from the parliamentary system.

Warning the allies of the NDA, Singh said the BJP would ''subsume'' them and the things had started in this direction. Bihar and to some extent in Orissa was an example of it, he added.

Replying to a question, the former prime minister said the phase of his self-imposed exile from the politics was over and he had kept open the option of joining any political forum.

Asked to explain it, the former Janata Dal leader said ''neither was he trying to make any party nor was joining any.''

In Lucknow, meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party warned that it would launch a nationwide ''do or die'' agitation if ''attempts were made to subvert the Constitution in the guise of reviewing it''.

Opposing the proposed move of the NDA to form a commission to review the Constitution, party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said leaders like Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad involved in framing the Constitution were persons of unparalleled depth, wisdom and vision.

It would be an act of ''sheer foolishness'' to show disrespect to them by handing over the task of review of their arduous work to persons with far less ability and vision, he added.

Maintaining that the proposed attempt to review the statute book would undermine the plurality of the country, the SP chief said the shift towards the presidential form of the government will also be a dangerous step as it was ''unsuitable for a country like ours''.

''We have been opposed to the presidential form of government for long'', Yadav said, adding that the BJP was ''raising contentious issues just to divert the attention of the people from its failures in all the spheres of governance''.

UNI

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