Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan triggered a nationwide controversy on Monday by declaring that the Bhagavad Gita is the “original handwritten Constitution” of India and that Dharma and the Indian Constitution are fundamentally the same. Speaking at the prestigious Geetha Utsava organised by Sri Krishna Mutt in Udupi, Karnataka, the actor-turned-politician pointed to the iconic illustration in the original Constitution depicting Lord Krishna counselling Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, deliberately placed above the chapter on Directive Principles of State Policy.

Kalyan elaborated that the framers of the Constitution consciously embedded this imagery to signify that the Gita represents India’s eternal moral vision, while the written document serves as its legal framework. “Many believe Dharma and Constitution belong to separate realms, but they do not,” he asserted, describing Dharma as the nation’s moral compass and the Constitution as its legal compass, both ultimately guiding society toward justice, peace, compassion, and equitable governance. He argued that the principles enshrined in the Gita formed the philosophical foundation upon which modern India’s constitutional democracy was constructed.

The remarks immediately drew fierce condemnation from the Congress party, which accused Kalyan of attempting to impose religious ideology on a secular document. Senior Congress leader and former Karnataka Minister BK Hariprasad launched a scathing personal attack, stating that celebrities who lack proper understanding of constitutional values often make such irresponsible statements. He emphasised that the Indian Constitution is explicitly secular in character and that there is no space for the concept of Dharma within its framework.

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Karnataka Minister and Congress leader Priyank Kharge went further, declaring that Pawan Kalyan exhibited a fundamental misunderstanding of both constitutional law and the deeper meaning of Dharma itself. “The Constitution and Dharma cannot be equated,” Kharge asserted, warning that conflating a religious scripture with the supreme law of a secular republic undermines the vision of Dr BR Ambedkar and the Constituent Assembly. Congress leaders accused the NDA of systematically attempting to replace constitutional secularism with a theocratic worldview.

In contrast, Kalyan received unequivocal support from his National Democratic Alliance partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party. Senior BJP leader Mahesh Tenginkai endorsed the Deputy Chief Minister’s statement, declaring that the underlying principles of justice, duty, and righteousness articulated in the Bhagavad Gita are indeed reflected in the Constitution. The sharp divide has intensified the ongoing ideological battle between the NDA’s emphasis on India’s civilisational heritage and the opposition’s staunch defence of constitutional secularism, turning a religious discourse in Udupi into a major national political confrontation.

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