Senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has expressed concerns over probable move to change the Constitution, particularly in context of RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale’s remarks about debate on status of two phrases “Secularism and Socialism” in the preamble.
Gehlot has justified “Save the Constitution” narrative raised by Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and said that the BJP and RSS have been projecting themselves as protectors of the constitution, however, their objective has always been to change it.
Elaborating on his point in a statement-that he posted on Twitter handle Friday evening- the three timer ex-CM said-“For the past two days, BJP and RSS have been playing the drama of being the protector of the Constitution, but their anti-Constitution mindset has been exposed by Mr. Dattatreya Hosabale’s statement about changing the Preamble of the Constitution”.
The RSS Hosabale, while speaking at a function in New Delhi on Thursday, to mark the 50th year since the Emergency, said “there should be a ‘debate’ over retaining the two phrases (principles) – which many see as central to their idea of what India should be – declaring they had been added in 1976 via the 42nd Amendment and were not in the original Preamble”.
Apparently, in this reference, Gehlot said in his statement -“The objective of BJP-RSS has always been to change the Constitution. Now, they are making such statements as if they are above the Supreme Court, which (only) has the power of judicial review.
Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, is raising the slogan “Save the Constitution” because the ruling BJP and RSS are ideologically and actively working towards changing the Constitution, the Congress leader said.
In the 1973 (prior to the 42nd amendment), in Kesavananda Bharati case, the Supreme Court clearly ruled that even though the words “secularism” and “socialism” were not originally written in the Constitution, they are part of its basic structure. In 1976, Mrs. Indira Gandhi further strengthened this spirit by formally adding these two words to the Preamble, he said.
This 1976 amendment was also challenged in the Supreme Court, and in the Minerva Mills case, the Court upheld the addition of words like “socialism” and “secularism” to the Preamble. The Supreme Court reaffirmed this stand again in the 1994 S. R. Bommai case and recently in the 2024 Balram Singh case, the former chief minister wrote in a post.