New Delhi: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday reignited a national debate by pointing out that while the Preamble of the Indian Constitution is generally viewed as unchangeable, it was amended during the Emergency in 1976. He referred specifically to the addition of the words “socialist”, “secular”, and “integrity” via the 42nd Constitutional Amendment.
Dhankhar, while agreeing that the Preamble is the “seed” from which the Constitution grows, stated:
“We must reflect. The Preamble was changed during the Emergency. When Dr. B R Ambedkar formulated the Constitution, he must have surely focused on this.”
He further noted,
“India is the only country whose Preamble has seen a change.”
🔥 The RSS Controversy:
Dhankhar’s comments come amid an ongoing row sparked by RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale, who recently demanded the removal of “socialist” and “secular” from the Preamble, arguing that these terms were forcibly inserted and not part of the original vision of the Constitution.
“Those who inserted these terms are still parading with copies of the Constitution. They have not even apologised,” Hosabale said in a veiled dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
🛡️ BJP Defends, Congress Criticises:
While BJP leaders have supported the RSS view, claiming secularism is a Western concept and not inherently Indian, the Congress has pushed back hard.
“The RSS’s mask has once again come off,” Rahul Gandhi said on X (formerly Twitter). “RSS-BJP don’t want the Constitution, they want Manusmriti.”
He accused the BJP-RSS alliance of trying to erode the rights of marginalised communities, calling the move an attempt to undermine the very spirit of India’s democracy.
Former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan said:
“The basic sentiment of India is equality of all religions. Secularism is not the core of our culture.”
Other BJP leaders echoed the sentiment, arguing that the 1976 amendment was pushed through under authoritarian circumstances during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency, and was not reflective of Ambedkar’s original vision.
🏛️ Legal Standing:
The Supreme Court, in November 2023, dismissed a batch of petitions challenging the 42nd Amendment, reaffirming that the changes made to the Preamble are legally valid.