Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has claimed that the copies of the Constitution given to the MPs did not contain the words “Secular” and “Socialist” in the Preamble. He alleged that the words were deliberately removed.
#WATCH | Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury says, "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… pic.twitter.com/NhvBLp7Ufi
— ANI (@ANI) September 20, 2023
“The new Constitution copies which were given to us, the Constitution copies holding which we entered the Parliament, the Preamble of that Constitution does not have the words Secular and Socialist,” the Congress leader said.
He added, “We know that these two words were included in 1976 but if someone gives us the Constitution today and it doesn’t contain the words Socialist and Secular then is a matter of concern. They have done this very carefully. If you try to say something then they will say that this is how it was from the start but their intentions are doubtful.”
Members of Parliament were given a hamper each which contained a copy of the Constitution, a commemorative coin featuring the new Parliament, and a postage stamp on the first day of the new Parliament House of India.
Chowdhury said that he wanted to raise the issue in the Parliament but did not get the chance to do so. Interestingly, the LoP did read out the words “secular” and “socialist” while reading from the Constitution copy on day 2 of the special session in the new Parliament.
Speaking to media, he said that when he was reading from the copy, he could not find those words, and hence he added the words, “secular” and “socialist” on his own.
#WATCH | On his claim that the new copies of the Constitution that were given to them, its Preamble didn't have the words 'socialist secular', Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury says, "..When I was reading it, I couldn't find these two words. I added them… pic.twitter.com/lCwdKtRsYV
— ANI (@ANI) September 20, 2023
It is notable here that the words were not a part of India’s original Constituion when it was adapted. But the words were inserted during the emergency under Indira Gandhi when almost the entire Opposition was in jail.
A number of BJP leaders have spoken on the issue, stating that the copies of the Constitution that were distributed were made as per the original copy of the Constitution and not the ‘changed’ version that Indira Gandhi forced on the country during the emergency, without following any democratic process.
Notably, on 5 September, the Congress on X, formerly Twitter, shared a picture of the Preamble in the Constitution which was full of typos and errors. The Congress had made a post on the social media platform amid speculations that the government could soon move a resolution to adopt Bharat as the country’s official name.
The party had to delete the post after spellings of ‘solemnly’ and ‘Republic’ were written as ‘solemny’ and ‘Repubic’ respectively while ‘opportunity’, ‘belief’, and ‘this’ were spelt as ‘oppertunity’, ‘brief’, and ‘thus’.
Meanwhile, Day 2 of the special session saw Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury trying to claim credit for the women’s reservation bill but his claims were dismissed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Chowdhury had said that Rajiv Gandhi had brought women’s quota to local body polls in 1989 but was countered by the treasury recounting how the bill continued to be lapsed during the UPA era.
