Today, On 28th June, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar said, “Preamble of a Constitution is not changeable,” but pointed out it was changed in 1976 during the Emergency by adding “socialist,” “secular,” and “integrity,” which no other constitution has seen.
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar emphasized on Saturday that the “Preamble of a constitution is not changeable,” describing it as the seed from which the entire document develops.
He pointed out that no other constitution has undergone modifications like India’s, noting that the Preamble was altered by the 42nd Constitution (Amendment) Act of 1976, which added the terms “socialist,” “secular,” and “integrity.”
Highlighting the meticulous work done by B.R. Ambedkar on the Constitution, he remarked,
“We must reflect,”
He suggested that Ambedkar must have given important attention to the Preamble.
Dhankhar’s comments came in response to the RSS’s recent call for a review of the terms “socialist” and “secular” in the Preamble, asserting that these words were included during the Emergency and were not part of Ambedkar’s original draft.
Opposition parties, including the Congress, criticized RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale’s suggestion for a national debate on this issue, labeling it as “political opportunism” and a “deliberate assault” on the Constitution’s essence.
Amid the political controversy caused by Hosabale’s strong advocacy for re-evaluating these terms, an article in the RSS-affiliated magazine Organiser stated that the intention is not to dismantle the Constitution but to restore its “original spirit,” free from the “distortions” of policies from the Emergency era.
Union minister Jitendra Singh and senior BJP leaders defended the RSS’s position, asserting that any reasonable citizen would agree, as it is well-known that these terms were not included in the original Constitution drafted by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.