Anant Kumar Hegde should apologise or be sacked: Opposition

New Delhi: Opposition parties on Wednesday took strong objection to Union minister Anant Kumar Hegde’s remarks on amending the Constitution and said such a person should have no place in the council of ministers.

Hegde should either apologise or Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take a call on whether such a person should continue as a minister, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters outside Parliament.

He said Opposition parties had raised the matter before Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu. “Opposition parties are of the opinion that any minister who does not believe in the Constitution should have no place in the council of ministers. It is for the prime minister to take a call on him,” Azad said.

“Either Hegde should apologise in both Houses and to the nation or the prime minister should take a decision on whether such people should continue,” he added. Both Houses were disrupted by opposition members over Hegde’s remarks.

The minister of state for skill development had said at an event in Karnataka that he respects the Constitution but “it will be changed in the days to come”.