‘RSS never accepted Constitution': Congress slams Dattatreya Hosabale's ‘should socialist, secular stay in Preamble' remark
A day after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale made a pitch for a discussion on whether the words 'socialist' and 'secular' should continue to remain in the Constitution, the Congress on Friday hit out at the outfit, saying that despite people rejecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'campaign cry during 2024 general elections to change the Constitution', the demand continues to be made.
'The RSS has NEVER accepted the Constitution of India. It attacked Dr. Ambedkar, Nehru, and others involved in its framing from Nov 30, 1949 onwards. In the RSS's own words, the Constitution was not inspired by Manusmriti,' Congress MP and communication in charge Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.
'The RSS and the BJP have repeatedly given the call for a new Constitution. This was Mr. Modi's campaign cry during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The people of India decisively rejected this cry. Yet the demands for changing the basic structure of the Constitution continue to be made by the RSS ecosystem,' he said.
'The Chief Justice of India himself delivered a judgment on November 25, 2024 on the issue now being raised by a leading RSS functionary. Would it be asking too much to request him to take the trouble to read it?' asked Ramesh.
He was referring to the Supreme Court order on November 25 last year, when it had dismissed petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the 42nd amendment by which the words 'secular' and 'socialist' were added to the Preamble of the Constitution during the Emergency period in 1976, saying 'these terms have achieved widespread acceptance, with their meanings understood by 'We, the people of India' without any semblance of doubt'.
A bench of then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar said Parliament's power under Article 368 to amend the Constitution also extends to the Preamble and rejected the argument that the words could not have been added retrospectively in 1976 to the original Preamble which has a cut-off date of November 26, 1949.
On Thursday, Hosabale not only asked the Congress to apologise to the country for imposing the Emergency but also made a strong pitch for a discussion on whether the words 'socialist' and 'secular', inserted in the Preamble of the Constitution during the Emergency days, should continue to remain.
In a statement, Congress MP and whip in Lok Sabha, Manickam Tagore, said: 'The RSS always wanted the Constitution to be attacked, and to be removed… We all know RSS stands for Manuvad and they want to spread hate. They call themselves a cultural organisation, not a political one. We all know the attack on words like secularism and socialism is an attack on the Constitution and parliamentary democracy. We will fight for the Constitution.'
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