'One flag, one PM, one constitution' not a political slogan: Amit Shah in Lok Sabha

New Delhi: Union home minister Amit Shah said in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday said the concept of “one Flag, one Prime Minister, one Constitution” was not a political slogan and that the BJP firmly believed in the principle. It was not an election slogan, he said. “We had been saying since 1950 that a country should have one PM, one Flag and one Constitution and two will not do and we have done it.”

He was speaking during a debate in the Lok Sabha on the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023. The debate will continue on Wednesday.

He was reacting to a remark by TMC MP Saugata Roy that the ‘Ek Nishan, Ek Pradhan, Ek Samvidhan’ was a political slogan. Shah called the remark objectionable and asked the MP: “How can a country have two prime ministers, two constitutions and two flags.”

“Whosoever did it was wrong,” Shah said in an apparent reference to the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. “Narendra Modi has corrected it. Your approval or disagreement does not matter. The entire country wanted it.”

Roy, speaking on the J&K-related bills had said he had taught in a college named after BJP idealogue Syama Prasad Mookerjee, and ‘Ek Nishan, Ek Pradhan, Ek Samvidhan’ was his slogan and it was a “political slogan.” Shah then rose to hit back at the TMC member.

Soon after Roy ended his speech on the bills, Union minister Piyush Goyal said while the TMC leader mentioned Syama Prasad Mookerjee, he should have also recalled his sacrifice.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 seeks to nominate two members, including a woman, from Kashmiri migrant community and one member from displaced persons from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) to the Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, provides for reservation in jobs and admission in professional institutions to members of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and other socially and educationally backward class communities.

During the debate, Union minister Jitendra Singh said that the government is ready to hold Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir whenever the Election Commission (EC) takes a final decision in the matter.

“The EC has its own mechanism of gathering inputs according to its requirements and it will take a final call. Let us all trust the wisdom of the EC and not appear to be interfering in its functioning,” Singh said.