On the first day of the new Parliament building, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that copies of the Constitution provided to MPs were missing the terms “secular” and “socialist” from the Preamble.
However, according to Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, these phrases were later added to the Preamble of the Constitution after constitutional modifications and were not included in the copies of the Preamble that were distributed. “This follows the Preamble’s original language. Later, amendments were made, he claimed.
Considering the situation serious, Chowdhury said that the words had been “cleverly removed” and questioned the BJP government’s motivations.
“The Preamble of the Constitution in the copy that we carried to the new building does not include the words secular and socialist. They have been cleverly removed…this is a serious matter and we will raise this issue,” he said.
He further said that he was aware that the words were added later in 1976 to the Constitution. “For me this is a serious issue. I doubt their intentions as their heart does not seem to be clear on this,” he added in his speech.
The Congress Leader of the House in Lok Sabha added that a copy of the Constitution given today should have the text as of that day.
The absence of the phrases was described as a “crime” by CPI member Binoy Viswam. Several opposition MPs, including those from the Left and other parties, are likely to bring up the issue during their meeting.
