Shiv Sena seeking 'signal for communal orchestra' to start playing: Congress

Congress leader Manish Tewari on Wednesday said the Shiv Sena's demand that the words 'socialist' and 'secular' should be removed from the Preamble of the Constitution goes on to show that the advertisement published by the government on Republic Day was not a coincidence but a signal for the communal orchestra to start playing.

Tewari alleged that if it is left to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies then they would even delete the word 'democratic' from the Preamble.

"What does this government want to do? Do they want to substitute the word socialism with crony capitalism? Do they want to substitute socialism with communalism? So, therefore, this is extremely dangerous trying to play around with the Preamble of the Constitution," said Tewari.

"And this only goes on to show that the advertisement was not a co-incidence, it was basically a signal for the communal orchestra to start playing," he added.

Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut had earlier said that removing the words socialist and secular is not controversy but the feeling of crores of Indians.

"The country is of Hindus and belongs to them. People of all religions can live in India but Hindus will dominate," he added.

The comment of Shiv Sena, which is one of the key constituents in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), has stirred a fresh controversy as it follows the advertisement published by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre on Republic Day which had the words 'secular' and 'socialist' missing from an excerpt of the Preamble.

The government had, however, defended itself and stated the words secular and socialist were included only after 1976.

"The words were included in the Constitution after an amendment in 1976. It doesn't mean that we are saying that before 1976 governments were not secular, we were just respecting the Preamble made at that time and used the same picture which was first made during the year of first Republic Day," Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said.