Keep secularism, socialism intact

The RSS general secretary Dattatrreya Hosabale’s call to remove socialism and secularism from the preamble of India’s Constitution is a clear attempt to undermine the spirit and structure of the Constitution. That he has based his plea on their incorporation during the infamous Emergency (1975-76), should be taken merely as red herrings to discredit the term.

The spirit of socialism and secularism runs through the entire text of the Constitution and is inseparable, although the term appeared within the original text (Article 25A) only once and was inserted in the preamble during 1976.

Even a cursory reading of the Constitution is enough to make it evidently clear that secularism intertwines with every ideal that the drafters of the Constitution envisioned and the methodology crucial to conduct the affairs of the nation.

The freedom and liberties enshrined in it and prohibition of discrimination, ensuring of rights to equality and justice social, economic and political all point to the Republic’s grandiose objective of building an inclusive society. What else it ought to be other than ‘secularism’.

Additionally, even before these terms were incorporated in the preamble, the Supreme Court had ruled that these were integral part of the Constitution and cannot be amended, deleted or violated. Similarly, the emphasis on social and economic justice forms part of the core of the socialist ideals and philosophy of the Constitution.

Any argument to drop or omit these two words should be viewed seriously as India sans ideals and promises of inclusiveness will be a territory alien to much of its toiling masses struggling to overcome historic inequalities.