By Our Special Correspondent
The Opposition on Friday accused the ruling dispensation of reviving its agenda of dismantling Ambedkar’s Constitution, citing RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale’s oblique push for the deletion of “socialist” and “secular” from the Preamble.
The Congress castigated the “assault on the Constitution”, alleging it was part of “a longstanding conspiracy” to dismantle B.R. Ambedkar’s vision of a “just, inclusive and democratic India”.
A CPM statement said: “This proposal (to drop the terms) exposes the RSS’s longstanding objective of subverting the Constitution and its intent to transform India into a Hindu Rashtra, in pursuit of its Hindutva project.”
Hosabale, second in command in the BJP’s ideological parent, had on Thursday underlined that the words “socialist” and “secular” had been inserted into the Preamble through (the 42nd) constitutional amendment in 1976, during the Emergency.
“They (these words) were not part of the original Constitution drafted by Babasaheb Ambedkar. No attempt was made to remove them later. So there should be a discussion on whether they should remain,” he said, addressing an event to mark the 50th anniversary of the Emergency.
This story was originally published in telegraphindia.com. Read the full story here.
