Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s claim that the words “socialist” and “secular” were missing from the Preamble of the copies of the Constitution handed out to MPs while moving to the new Parliament building turned out to be much ado about nothing.
The government clarified that the copies distributed carried the original version of the Preamble of the Constitution as passed by the Constituent Assembly and that these words had been added later through an amendment.
Two versions
It turns out that the MPs had been given two copies each of two versions of the Constitution: a calligraphic copy of the original document as passed by the Constituent Assembly, and a copy of the current Constitution with all the later amendments.
The Preamble lays down the guiding principles of the Constitution. The words “secular” and “socialist” were inserted in the Constitution’s Preamble in 1976, through the 42nd amendment introduced by the Congress government of the time, headed by Indira Gandhi.
‘Secular, socialist removed’
Mr. Chowdhary had told the media: “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.”
However, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal had dismissed the issue, saying that the copies had carried the original version of the Preamble of the Constitution and not the amended version. “This is as per the original Preamble. Amendments were made later,” he said.
‘Intentions are suspect’
To this, Mr. Chowdhary replied that he knew the words were added to the Constitution in 1976. “For me, this is a serious issue. I doubt their intentions as their heart does not seem to be clear on this,” he said, reiterating that if someone gives out a copy of the Constitution today, it should carry the version of it as it stands today.
Confirming that MPs were indeed given both versions of the Constitution, Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas said while the government was “technically correct, their intentions are suspect”.
