The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has strongly condemned the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s proposal to remove the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ from the Preamble of the Indian Constitution, calling it a blatant attempt to subvert the Constitution and transform India into a Hindu Rashtra.
“This proposal exposes the RSS’s long-standing objective of subverting the Constitution and its intent to transform India into a Hindu Rashtra, in pursuit of its Hindutva project,”CPI (M) said on Friday.
RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale had on Thursday pitched for the removal of the terms ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ from the Preamble of the Constitution. Addressing an event in Delhi, Hosabele had argued whether the words socialist and secular, which he said were added to the Preamble by the Congress government during the Emergency, should remain.
In a statement issued by the CPI(M) politbureau, the Left party said: “The Indian Constitution embodies the aspirations of countless freedom fighters… The inclusion of ‘socialism’ and ‘secularism’ in the Preamble reflects the core values for which freedom fighters like Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh and his comrades stood and sacrificed their lives.”
“It is the height of hypocrisy for the RSS, which played no role in the freedom movement, to now advocate for the removal of these foundational principles,” the statement read, further asserting: “The CPI(M) firmly opposes any attempt to alter the core values enshrined in our Constitution.”
The Left party’s statement highlights the RSS’s reactionary, anti-people, and divisive ideology, which it said is reflected in its proposal to remove ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ from the Constitution.