VP Dhankhar calls Emergency-era Preamble changes a 'festering wound'

Vice President Dhankar's remarks came after the RSS on Thursday called for reviewing the words 'socialist' and 'secular' in the Preamble of the Constitution

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday asserted the preamble of a constitution is "not changeable" but was changed in India during the Emergency which signals a betrayal of the "wisdom" of the framers of the Constitution.

He also said the words inserted in the Preamble in 1976 during the period of Emergency, were a "nasoor" (festering wound) and could cause upheaval.

"It is nothing but belittling the civilisational wealth and knowledge of this country for thousands of years. It is a sacrilege of the spirit of Sanatan," the vice president said at a book launch event here.

Dhankhar described preamble as a "seed" on which a constitution grows. He also underlined that the preamble of no other constitution has undergone change except that of India.

"The Preamble of a constitution is not changeable. But this Preamble was changed by the 42nd Constitution (Amendment) Act of 1976," he said noting that the words "socialist", "secular", and "integrity" were added.

He said it was a travesty of justice that something that cannot be changed was altered "casually, farcically, and with no sense of propriety" and that too during Emergency when several opposition leaders were in jail.

"And in the process, if you deeply reflect, we are giving wings to existential challenges. These words have been added as nasoor (festering wound). These words will create upheaval," Dhankhar cautioned.

"We must reflect," he said, adding that B R Ambedkar did painstaking work on the Constitution and he must have "surely focused on it".

His remarks came after the RSS on Thursday called for reviewing the words 'socialist' and 'secular' in the Preamble of the Constitution, saying they were included during the Emergency and were never part of the Constitution drafted by Ambedkar.

The Congress and other opposition parties have slammed RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale's call for a national debate on whether the terms 'secular' and 'socialist' should remain in the Preamble, terming it "political opportunism" and a "deliberate assault" on the soul of the Constitution.

As Hosabale's strong pitch for a review of the two words inserted in the Preamble of the Constitution during the Emergency days (1975-77) kicked up a political row, an article published in an RSS-linked magazine Organiser said it is not about dismantling the Constitution but about restoring its "original spirit", free from the "distortions" of the Congress' Emergency-era policies.

Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that "there is no need for socialism in India" and noted that "secularism is not the core of our culture".

Another Union minister Jitendra Singh sought to defend the call by the second senior most functionary of the RSS, saying any right-thinking citizen will endorse it because everybody knows that these words were not part of the original Constitution written by Ambedkar.