A deliberate strategy to usher in a communal order

On the eve of the 75th anniversary of the Indian Constitution, the Supreme Court of India reaffirmed the foundational character of the Indian Republic by upholding the inclusion of the words “secular” and “socialist” in the Constitution's Preamble.

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These words, introduced through the Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act, 1976, by the Indira Gandhi-led government during the Emergency, have been the target of repeated political and legal attacks by right-wing forces. Dismissing a batch of petitions challenging these additions, a Bench of the Supreme Court recently upheld the addition of these words, arguing that the mere absence of these terms in the original Preamble adopted on November 26, 1949, cannot invalidate their inclusion. This legal reaffirmation was a powerful signal from the judiciary. But the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological backbone of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), chose to launch a fresh offensive on the very idea of India as enshrined in the Constitution. RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale made a brazen demand: the removal of “secular” and “socialist” from the Preamble, which, according to him, were alien to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s constitutional vision.

The Vice-President of India, Jagdeep Dhankhar, went astep further, terming the insertion of these words as “sacrilege to the spirit of Sanatan”. It is no coincidence that these statements are being made from some of the highest offices of the land. This is not an intellectual debate. This isa deliberate political strategy to delegitimise the modern, plural, democratic republic of India and to usher in a communal and hierarchical order.An agenda, from fringe to mainstream