Congress unhappy over Preamble issue, targets government

NEW DELHI: Congress today took strong objection to the government's call for a debate on whether the words 'socialist' and 'secular' should be in the Preamble of the Constitution, saying it reflects a "concerted agenda" of the Modi government as BJP already has "doubtful integrity".

Deprecating the move, Congress said the Prime Minister himself should come forward and clarify his government's intent on "playing with" the Constitution spirit as also his own stand on the words 'secular' and 'socialist' in the Preamble.

"The government spokesperson's remarks after a Cabinet meeting about starting a debate (on Preamble) reflected a concerted agenda on the part of the Modi government to review the core ideology of the Constitution," party spokesman Randeep Surjewala said.

He was referring to comments by Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who said yesterday that there could be a debate on whether these two words should be in the Preamble.

"BJP has always had a doubtful integrity in its character role on the touchstone of socialism and secularism," he said.

This, he said, was evident from the advertisements issued by the I&B Ministry on the Republic Day in which the two words were absent besides the "lame duck" explanation of the Minister of State Raghvendra Singh Rathore and the subsequent demand for a debate on the issue.

The Congress spokesman said the philosophy of Constitution includes fundamental rights particularly the right to practice religion enshrined in Article 25.

The government jumped into the controversy created by the remarks of the Shiv Sena earlier that the words 'socialist' and 'secular should be dropped from the Preamble to the Constitution.