The Bharatiya Janata Party -led Central Government said that it has no plans to remove the words ‘socialism’ and ‘secularism’ from the Preamble of the Constitution. Focusing on the recent demands of reviewing these two words in the preamble during the Emergency, the Center said that no formal decision or proposal has been announced by the government. Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, “The official attitude of the government is that there is no plan or intention to rethink or remove the words ‘socialism’ and ‘secularism’ from the preamble of the Constitution.
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Meghwal further said that any discussion regarding amendment in the preamble will require intensive deliberations and widespread consent, but so far, the government has not initiated any formal process to change these provisions. Commenting on the discourse waged by some social organizations, Meghwal said that some groups would be expressing their opinion or demanding revaluation of specific words. He said, “Such activities can create public discourse or environment on the issue, but it is not necessary to reflect the official stance or functions of the government.”
Meghwal stated that in November 2024, the Supreme Court had rejected the petitions challenging the 1976 amendment (42nd Constitution Amendment), referring to that the power of Parliament to amend the Constitution is extended to the preamble. The court clarified that in the Indian context, the ‘Samajwadi’ expresses a welfare state (governance) and does not hindered the development of the private sector, while the ‘secular’ is an integral part of the basic structure of the constitution.
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RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosbole created a political uproar by calling for national debate on maintaining secular and socialist words in the preamble last month. Then vice -president Jagdeep Dhankhar stressed this and said that the preamble is sacred and “cannot be changed.” He went a step ahead and added adding those words to “insult the spirit of Sanatan”. The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi reacted sharply to Hosbole’s remarks and said that “the RSS-BJP does not want the constitution; they want ‘Manusmriti’.”