Constitution’s Preamble was changed during emergency: Dhankhar
Dhankhar says that except for India, the Preamble of no other nation’s Constitution has been changed, ever, because it is not changeable
Days after RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale said that the fate of the two words “socialist and secular” should be debated, Vice President, Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday (June 28) said although the Preamble of the constitution of any other nation cannot be changed, the Indian Constitution’s Preamble was changed and the words “socialist, secular and integrity” were added to it.
‘Preamble is not changeable’
“And friends, except Bharat, no constitution’s preamble has undergone change. And why? Preamble is not changeable. Preamble is the basis on which the constitution has grown. The Preamble is the seed of the Constitution. It is the soul of the constitution,” said Dhankhar.
“But this Preamble for Bharat was changed by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1976, adding words socialist, secular and integrity,” he added.
"No country's preamble has undergone change except Bharat but devastatingly, this change was effective for Bharat at a time when people were virtually enslaved. We the People, the ultimate fountain of power, the best of them were languishing in jails. They were denied access to Judicial System. I am referring to the 22 months of draconian emergency that was proclaimed on 25th June 1975. So what a travesty of justice?" the Vice President said.
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‘Debate on spirit of the Constitution’
The Vice President also said there was a need to reflect on some issues that need to agitate the public mind, catalyse national discourse so that we get a “much-needed” corrective path. “It is much needed, I emphasise,” he added.
“These are propitious times for all of us to engage in discourse, dialogue, debate, upon the essence and spirit of the Indian Constitution, a document that defines our democracy,” the Vice President said.
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What Hosabale said
Earlier, Hosabale had said that during the Emergency, the two words “socialist” and “secular” were added to the Preamble of the Constitution, pointing out that the two words were not part of the original Preamble.
He also said that the words had not been removed, adding that whether they should be retained in the Preamble or not should be debated. The RSS leader, according to an NDTV report, also said that the two words were not part of “Dr Ambedkar's Constitution”, adding that during the Emergenc,y the Parliament was not functioning and even though there was “no rights, no judiciary”, the two words were added to the Preamble.
Taking a veiled dig at Congress and Rahul Gandhi, Hosabale said the people who added the two words to the Preamble were now “roaming around” with copies of the Constitution and “had not apologised” to the people of India.
(The story will be updated soon)