BJP should sever ties with Shiv Sena over secularism: Congress

Slamming Shiv Sena for demanding exclusion of the words 'secular' and 'socialist' from the preamble of the Constitution, Congress in Maharashtra today demanded that the ruling BJP should sever the alliance with the Uddhav Thackeray-led party.
State Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant alleged that the union government's controversial advertisement on the Republic Day which carried a picture of the preamble as it was before the 42nd amendment was "deliberate" and a part of the RSS's hidden agenda.
"BJP should clarify its stand on the principles of secularism and socialism and instead of maintaining silence, it should remove Shiv Sena from the government at the Centre and the state," Sawant said, adding that Sena's demand to exclude the words socialist and secular was an attack on the Constitution itself.

Sena MP Sanjay Raut had said yesterday that these two words should be removed from the Constitution "permanently".
Meanwhile, NCP dared the BJP to bring a Constitutional amendment to exclude the two words. The party would oppose any such proposal tooth and nail, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said.
"A Constitutional amendment was made in 1976 to include these words. During the emergency, it was only Shiv Sena which had supported Indira Gandhi's decisions," he pointed out.
Secularism and socialism were the soul of Indian Constitution, he said.
"Minister of state for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore says India will always be a secular nation, but the Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad has endorsed Raut's comments," Malik alleged.