New Delhi : Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were “attacking” the Constitution and said that such attacks are not acceptable by the Opposition INDIA bloc.

Opposition leaders, including Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, staged a protest in Parliament premises holding copies of the Constitution in their hands.

“The attack that the PM and Amit Shah are launching on the Constitution is not acceptable to us, we will not let this happen. So, we held the Constitution while taking the oath…Our message is going across, no power can touch the Constitution of India,” the Raebareli MP told reporters ahead of the beginning of the 18th Lok Sabha session today.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing mediapersons ahead of the commencement of the Parliament Session took an indirect jab at the Congress over the Emergency imposed in 1975, calling it a “blot” on democracy “when the Constitution was discarded”.

“Tomorrow is 25th June. 25th June marks 50 years of the blot that was put on the democracy of India. The new generation of India will never forget that the Constitution of India was completely rejected, every part of the Constitution was torn to pieces, the country was turned into a prison, and democracy was completely suppressed,” he said.

“While protecting our Constitution, while protecting the democracy of India and the democratic traditions, the countrymen will take a resolution that no one will dare to do such a thing in India again, which was done 50 years ago. We will take a resolution of a vibrant democracy. We will take a resolution to fulfil the dreams of the common people as per the directions of the Constitution of India,” PM Modi said.

Amid the row over the appointment of Bhartruhari Mahtab as pro-tem speaker, INDIA bloc leaders on Monday carried out a protest holding copies of the Constitution inside the Parliament premises in the national capital.

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said, ” The ruling party hasn’t forgotten their haughtiness…we can see that they are ignoring the key subjects of the country…the whole Dalit community in India could witness a historic seen if K Suresh were appointed as Pro-tem Speaker…today, BJP has not just neglected Congress, INDIA alliance and K Suresh but the whole Dalit community…”

Akhilesh Yadav, Dimple Yadav, and all other MPs of Samajwadi Party arrived at the Parliament this morning, carrying a copy of the Constitution of India.Trinamool Congress leaders Sudip Bandhopadhyay, Kalyan Banerjee, and Sougata Roy stated that the Modi government has violated the Constitution.

“We demand to protect the constitution of the country…Agreements happen between India and Bangladesh but they do not call the West Bengal government, and do everything one-sidedly…We have to protect it from the first day of this 18th Lok Sabha…” said TMC MP Sudip Bandhopadhyay.

“We are protesting because the provisions of the Constitution have been violated. The Constitution has been violated by the Narendra Modi government. The way the pro-tem speaker has been appointed is a clear violation of the Constitutional provision and clear violation of the earlier precedences…” said TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee.