BJP Rajya Sabha member Radha Mohan Das Agrawal claimed Tuesday that 22 miniature illustrations by artist Nandalal Bose were “missing” from newer copies of the Constitution, prompting Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to appeal to the government to make “amends, act and ensure that only the authentic copy of the Constitution is available”.
In a veiled attack on Congress, Agrawal raised the issue during the Zero Hour and said, “If a citizen or a student goes to buy a copy of the Constitution, he is unable to get the original version signed by the makers of our Constitution. I am not aware for what reason and when this happened but key portions of that version of the Constitution were omitted unconstitutionally. We all know that constitutional amendments have to follow a procedure, including removal of full stop and commas.”
He referred to the illustrations of the Indus Valley seal, Lord Ram, Buddha, Mahavir, Krishna and Arjun from the Mahabharat, Samrat Vikramaditya, Laxmibai, Shivaji and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
Amid uproar from the Opposition benches, Dhankhar appealed to the Leader of the House JP Nadda to ensure that only the authentic version of the Constitution be promulgated. “Any violation should be taken seriously by the government and serious action taken,” he said.
Terming the issue “unnecessary”, Leader of Opposition in RS Mallikarjun Kharge said it was an attempt to spark a controversy and sought to know whether the copies provided by the House to the MPs included those illustrations. Later, the Congress MPs walked out of the House.
Nadda, however, said that the issue raised was important. When he was given a copy of the original version, Nadda showed it to the House and said, “These illustrations are not printed and published in today’s copies. The government will ensure that the Constitution is published with the full emotions it was intended to be done.”
After the matter was raised in the House, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat made the original copy of the Constitution with the illustrations available to the MPs on their tablets during the Question Hour, a source said.