Karnataka: Union Minister Anant Kumar Hegde in a statement has said that his party, the ruling BJP will “soon change the Constitution,” which mentions the word “secular.”
He was attacking what he called a “new fad where people project themselves as secular.”
The 49-year-old minister was speaking at a function in Kukanur of Koppal district of Karnataka when he urged people to “claim with pride that they are Muslim, Christian, Lingayat, Brahmin, or a Hindu.”
He added, “Those who, without knowing about their parental blood, call themselves secular, they don’t have their own identity. They don’t know about their parentage, but they are intellectuals.”
He also said, “Some people say the Constitution says secular and you must accept it. We will respect the Constitution, but the Constitution has changed several times and it will change in the future too. We are here to change the Constitution and we’ll change it.”
Anant Kumar Hegde is a five-time Lok Sabha member from Uttara Kannada. He was made a minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet reshuffle in August this year as part of the BJP’s strategy to boost representation from states where elections will be held soon.
