Constitution needs to be safeguarded to ensure peace and brotherhood: Sharad Pawar

Mumbai, Mar 31 (PTI) Former Union minister Sharad Pawar has said the country’s Constitution needs to be safeguarded in order to ensure peace and brotherhood.

Speaking at an Iftar gathering here on Saturday, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) chief said some people from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have routinely spoken about making changes in the Constitution.

“Such comments are worrisome. If there is peace, there is no need to worry unlike in countries in the neighbourhood where governments destroyed democracy to favour an individual. Such a situation should never befall our nation,” Pawar said.

“For peace and brotherhood, we need to ensure that the Constitution is safeguarded,” he added.

Notably, BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde earlier this month said his party needed a two-third majority in both Houses of Parliament to amend the Constitution and “set right the distortions and unnecessary additions made to it by the Congress”.

The BJP later moved to defuse the row sparked by Hegde’s remarks as it dubbed it as his “personal opinion” and sought a clarification from him.

Pawar said, “There is an undeclared Emergency in the country. A chief minister is in jail and many others are facing similar situation. We have to face this situation by staying united.”

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Arvind Sawant, who has been renominated from Mumbai South Lok Sabha seat for the upcoming parliamentary polls, and Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad were present at the event.