Rajya Sabha Leader of the House J P Nadda attacked the Congress on Tuesday for amending the Constitution for its own benefit and alleged that its past actions of "toppling governments" in states led to staggered polls, creating the necessity for 'One Nation One Election' bill.

Participating in a debate in the Upper House on the "Glorious Journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India", the BJP president accused the Congress of practising politics of appeasement and attempting to bring in religion-based reservations, a charge which was vociferously contested by the opposition party.

Former prime minister and JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda called upon Parliament to contemplate whether reservation should continue to be given on the basis of caste or it should be changed to economic criteria.

The BJP president, meanwhile, also spoke about the Emergency, rejecting the Congress' claim of having apologised for it. Nadda said if the Congress regrets the step, it should join in observing 'Samvidhan Hatya Divas' on June 25 next year, the 50th anniversary of the imposition of the Emergency.

Nadda quoted B R Ambedkar to say "however good a Constitution may be, if those who are implementing it are not good, it will prove to be bad", and added that the "bad lot has interfered with the Constitution many times".

On a day when two bills that lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous elections were introduced in the Lok Sabha after a fiery debate, Nadda blamed the Congress for creating a situation that forced the government to take this step.

"We have to bring the One Nation One Election bill because you toppled elected government in states, and elections had to be held," Nadda said.

He targeted the Congress over issues ranging from Article 370 to triple talaq, and also accused it of not protecting the territorial integrity of the country.

Nadda also accused the Congress of trying to bring in reservation based on religion. The Leader of the House said Ambedkar had clearly said that reservation should not be structured in the name of religion.

His remarks were objected to by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who raised the issue of reservation given by the Gujarat Government.

Coming to Nadda's defence, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "What Jairam Ramesh is saying now is wrong. What the Gujarat chief minister gave was on the basis of economic backwardness. Here it is mentioned religious minorities," she said, referring to a circular purportedly issued by the DoPT under the then Congress-led government.

She added that Ramesh is conflicting the two (reservations given by the Gujarat government and the DoPT circular) and misleading the House.  BJP MP K Laxman who heads the party's OBC Morcha backed Sitharaman's claim.

Countering Sitharaman, Ramesh said, "We (Congress) have never spoken about religion-based reservation", adding that wherever reservation has been given like in Karnataka it is on the basis of being socially and economically backward not on the basis of religion.

Sitharaman responded to Ramesh, saying that he may come up with any number of clarifications but he is misleading the House on this point.

Nadda also claimed that Ambedkar, during the debates of the Constituent Assembly, had said there was no need to include the words 'secular' and 'socialist' in the Preamble of the Constitution.

Speaking on reservation, Deve Gowda said "The House itself has to apply its mind on what all happened in the past and whether we should give reservation only on the basis of poverty in this country," he said.

People are suffering "even with the reservations that we have given in the past and it has not lifted the people who are still suffering for two-square meals a day", he said.

The former prime minister said the House should think over whether reservation should be continued to given on the same lines as in the past or "only who are suffering with most poverty" and whose living condition is bad should be given priority.

"If the House thinks over and the leaders think over, this can be thought over by the prime minister (Narendra Modi) before taking any decision on the reservation," Deve Gowda said.

He said the Constitution drafted by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar has withstood the test of time.

Meanwhile, Opposition members from TMC and CPI(M) on  alleged that constitutional rights in Manipur had been suspended and slammed the BJP MPs for not raising the issue during the debate on the Constitution.

Ram Nath Thakur, JD(U) leader and Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, said the government strives to implement the principles enshrined in the Constitution.

He congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving Bharat Ratna to former prime ministers P V Narasimha Rao and Charan Singh as well as former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur, a champion of backward empowerment, among others, in 2023, asking who stopped the Congress-party from doing the same.

Criticising the BJP for frequently taking jibes at the country's first prime minister, RJD leader Manoj Kumar Jha said Jawaharlal Nehru is a symbol of parliamentary democracy against authoritarianism.

In his speech, AAP's Ashok Kumar Mittal pointed out that at a time when Parliament is discussing the journey of the Constitution, a large number of people are not getting sufficient food, lakhs are searching for jobs and 40 per cent of the population do not own houses.

He also stressed that despite all challenges, the Constitution has shown the way to the country and will keep doing so even in the next 1,000 years.