.. Whereas the Constitution is being treated merely as a legal document, the fact is that it is not simply a document that was conceived out of thin air by lawyers. It is the product of history, and by history ... because it was hammered out during and in the process of the freedom struggle, a struggle that historians tell us moved as many men and women to action ... The philosophy of the Constitution embodies the spirit of the freedom movement. Even as the freedom struggle invited people into an activity called politics, the main themes of the Constitution were forged in the process of political negotiation between groups that held diverse views on the desired polity. And that is why it is considered legitimate and binding.

... Though the Constitution was framed amidst the horrors of the Partition, and the emergence of Pakistan on ostensibly religious grounds, it is worthwhile to recollect that the leadership honoured every commitment it had made to the religious minorities. The principle of sarva darma samabhava, which had been forged in the 1920s, became the underlying thread of the Constitution, simply because the leadership recognised that historical pacts are sacrosanct and have to be respected.

What is the history that the BJP-led coalition is going to embody in the proposed review? ... Do we want to review it in the light of the way in which the situation where people belonging to different persuasions have managed to live and work together has been demolished by Hindutva? ... history reveals no vision, no dream, no passions, except that of building a majoritarian and managerial India.

.. (The BJP) has been associated with the attempt to demolish the gains of the freedom struggle - freedom of expression, secularism, and the idea of a social revolution.

That is why thinking sections of the body politic are understandably disturbed ... Let it prove its own credentials to be a democratic party. interested in the fate of the ordinary Indian, let it show us that it is not part of the project to build a majoritarian India, before it can be entrusted with the task of reviewing the Constitution ... (Source: The Hindu, 9 February, 2000)