‘Assault on Constitution’s soul’
New Delhi: Several Opposition parties on Friday denounced RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale’s call to review the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ in the Preamble, terming it a “deliberate assault” on the soul of the Constitution.
The attack came a day after the RSS proposed reviewing the two words, saying they were included during the Emergency and were never part of the Constitution drafted by B R Ambedkar.
While the Congress saw it as a “deliberate assault” on the soul of the Constitution and claimed the RSS-BJP had never accepted Ambedkar’s Constitution, the CPI(M) said the demand exposes the RSS’ long-standing objective of subverting it.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the mask of the RSS has come off again as they want ‘Manusmriti’. “The Constitution irks them because it speaks of equality, secularism, and justice,” he said in a post in Hindi on X.
“The RSS-BJP doesn’t want the Constitution; they want ‘Manusmriti’. They aim to strip the marginalized and the poor of their rights and enslave them again. Snatching a powerful weapon like the Constitution from them is their real agenda,” he alleged.
CPI(M) leader and Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Hosabale’s call is a “brazen attempt to dismantle the core ideals of our Republic”.
“Secularism and socialism are not additions; they define India. Every citizen who believes in democracy must raise their voice against this communal agenda,” Vijayan said on X.
The Left parties and RJD alleged that Hosabale’s proposal was part of a conspiracy to change the Constitution.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the BJP/RSS attacked Ambedkar, Nehru, and others involved in the framing of the Constitution from November 30, 1949, onwards. “In the RSS’ own words, the Constitution was not inspired by Manusmriti,” he said in a post on X.
Sharing the Supreme Court’s November 25, 2024, judgment on the issue, he said, “Would it be asking too much to request him to take the trouble to read it?”
In a post on X from its official handle, the Congress alleged the RSS-BJP’s ideology stands in direct opposition to the Indian Constitution.
“RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale has openly called for the removal of the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ from the Preamble. This is not just a suggestion -- it is a deliberate assault on the soul of our Constitution,” it said.
The Congress said the people saw through their agenda and gave them a resounding answer.
“Now, they have returned to their old playbook. But let it be known: The Congress will stand as an unbreakable wall against any attempt to undermine the Constitution. Jai Samvidhan,” it asserted.
RJD president Lalu Prasad, who claimed that social justice and communal harmony are his guiding
principles, voiced his anguish on X by terming the RSS a “casteist” outfit.
In a statement, the CPI(M) Politburo said the inclusion of ‘socialism’ and ‘secularism’ in the Preamble is not an arbitrary addition and reflects the core values for which freedom fighters sacrificed their lives.
“The Communist Party of India (Marxist) strongly denounces the proposal made by the RSS general secretary to remove the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ from the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. This proposal exposes the RSS’s long-standing
objective of subverting the Constitution and its intent to transform India into a Hindu Rashtra, in pursuit of its Hindutva project.”
Hosabale, while addressing an event on the Emergency, said on Thursday that “the preamble of the Constitution Baba Saheb Ambedkar made never had these words.”
