The Opposition parties on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at Centre after ‘tempered’ copies of the Constitution of India were handed out to the Parliamentarians while moving to the new Parliament building. According to Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the English version copies of the Constitution that were given to the MPs didn’t have the “Socialist Secular” in the Preamble.
“The new copies of the Constitution that were given to us today (19th September), the one we held in our hands and entered (the new Parliament building), its Preamble doesn’t have the words ‘socialist secular’. We know that the words were added after an amendment in 1976 but if someone gives us the Constitution today and it doesn’t have those words, it is a matter of concern,” Chowdhury was quoted as saying by news agency Asia News International.
The Congress leader questioned the government’s intentions behind the move and said that he didn’t get an opportunity to speak when he tried to raise the issue in the Parliament.
“Their intention is suspicious. It has been done cleverly. It is a matter of concern for me. I tried to raise this issue but I did not get an opportunity to raise this issue”, he added.
Reacting to the controversy, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said that the copies were of the original constitution which didn’t have the word “socialist secular” words. The Hindi version of the copies, however, carried the amended version of the Constitution.
The words “socialist secular” were added to the Constitution of India through 42nd Amendment in 1976 under Indira Gandhi-rule.