Organiser: Go back to original Preamble sans 'socialist' and 'secular'

NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale's call for a review on the continuation of "socialist" and "secular" in the Constitution's Preamble - words added during the Emergency, Sangh-inspired weekly 'Organiser' dubbed the terms "ideological landmines" designed to "subvert dharmic values" and "serve political appeasement", stressing it's time to "undo" them and reclaim the original Constitution.Terming the insertion of the two words into the Preamble an "act of constitutional fraud", an article in the magazine's latest edition said these terms were not mere "cosmetic additions" but "ideological imposition" that contradicts the very spirit of "Bharat's civilisational identity and constitutional democracy"."Let us be clear: No Constituent Assembly ever approved these words. The 42nd Amendment was passed during Emergency when Parliament functioned under duress, with opposition leaders in jail and the media gagged," Dr Niranjan B Poojar said in the opinion piece, titled 'Revisiting Socialist and Secular in the Preamble: Reclaiming India's Constitutional Integrity'.

It was an "act of constitutional fraud", akin to forging someone's will when they are unconscious, it said."Bharat must revert to the original Preamble, as envisioned by the founding fathers... Let us undo Emergency's constitutional sin and reclaim the Preamble for the people of Bharat," the article said.Noting that a "constitutional clean up" is due, the article said removing 'socialist' and 'secular' is not about ideology but restoring "constitutional honesty, reclaiming national dignity and ending political hypocrisy".

"We are not a socialist country. We are not a secular-atheist state. We are a dharmic civilization rooted in pluralism, swaraj and spiritual autonomy. Let us have the courage to say so in our Constitution," it said.The article said after insertion of the term 'secular' into the Preamble, the "Indian version" of secularism lost neutrality and it became a "smokescreen for state-sponsored discrimination against Hindus in the name of minority rights".