Pragya Thakur’s statement about PM Nehru’s signing of the constitution is factually incorrect
Claim
Rating
Explanation
In a recent interview posted by the news channel Aaj Tak on its YouTube, we see BJP MP Pragya Thakur’s interaction with the host titled “Panchayat AajTak Sadhvi Pragya EXCLUSIVE Full Interview | MP Election 2023 | Bhopal | Congress | BJP” on 15 September 2023. During the interview around the timeline of 31 minutes and 43 seconds, we can hear the statement of Pragya Thakur claiming that “Jawaharlal Nehru was so eager to sign the Constitution as soon as possible. When the Constitution was made, it was to be signed. The President’s signature comes first. But he (Nehru) signed and left no space for others. The President had to sign on the side later.”
She also added, “Just imagine, a person who doesn’t know his duty of where to sign, that person signed before the President. But our humble former President signed on the side, a little lower (than Nehru’s signature). This is a matter of great shame for us.”
Come, let’s check the facts behind this statement of BJP MP Pragya Thakur.
What’s the truth?
When we started our research using relevant keywords in Google, we found out that the statement claimed by Pragya Thakur is factually incorrect. We searched for a copy of the Indian constitution and found it on the Indian Government website of amritmahotsav.in.
Here, while seeing the copy of the constitution we see that late PM Jawarhalal Nehru’s signature was also present among all the other members. Also, if you have a closer look you can see that President Rajendra Prasad’s signature is on top of all the other signatures. This clearly contradicts the BJP MP Pragya’s statements claiming that President Rajendra Prasad’s sign was on the side because of the lack of space. This proves that her claim is false.
Then we dug a little deep behind why Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru has signed the constitution. While searching for more proof regarding this constitution signing process, we got our hands on the “CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF INDIA DEBATES (PROCEEDINGS) – VOLUME XII” records from the official website of Lok Sabha. Here we see a separate heading namely “Signing of the Constitution.”
The document clearly shows what President Rajendra Prasad said while signing the constitution. According to the records, the President said “The only thing that now remains is the signing of the copy of the Constitution by the Members. There are three copies ready. One is in English completely hand-written and illuminated by artists. The second copy is in print in English. The third copy is also hand-written in Hindi. All three copies are laid on the table and Members will be requested one by one to come and sign the copies. The idea is to call them in the order in which they are sitting in the House now. But, as the Honourable Prime Minister has to go on public duty, I will request him first to sign them.
(The Honourable Shri Jawaharlal Nehru then signed the copies of the Constitution.)”
Now we know what exactly happened during the signing of the constitution. It’s the President who insisted and invited PM Nehru to first sign the constitution of India. And this proves that PM Nehru didn’t rush to sign the constitution by himself.
The above document sheds more light on the event of signing the constitution and completely disproves BJP MP Pragya’s claim in the Aaj Tak YouTube video.
Conclusion:
Thus, with the available evidence we conclude that BJP MP Pragya Thakur is factually incorrect and said those statements with ignorance and malicious intentions.
