Jaipur, June 27 (IANS) Referring to the recent statement by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Dattatreya Hosabale in which he referred on holding discussions on words like ‘Socialist’ and ‘Secular’ for they were added in the Preamble of the Constitution during the Emergency, former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Friday that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the RSS have been exposed with their “anti-Constitution” mindset.

Gehlot said, “For the past two days, BJP and RSS have been playing the drama of being the protector of the Constitution, but their “anti-Constitution” mindset has been exposed by Dattatreya Hosabale’s statement about changing the Preamble of the Constitution.”

“The objective of BJP-RSS has always been to change the Constitution. Now, they are making such statements as if they are above the Supreme Court, which has the power of judicial review,” he noted.

“Lok Sabha’s Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, is raising the slogan “Save the Constitution” because the ruling BJP and RSS are ideologically and actively working towards changing the Constitution,” he said.

The former Chief Minister also brought in the reference of earlier court cases and quoted Supreme Court’s judgment saying, “In the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati case, the Supreme Court clearly ruled that even though the words “secularism” and “socialism” were not originally written in the Constitution, they are part of its basic structure. In 1976, Indira Gandhi further strengthened this spirit by formally adding these two words to the Preamble.”

“This 1976 Amendment was also challenged in the Supreme Court, and in the Minerva Mills case, the Court upheld the addition of words like “socialism” and “secularism” to the Preamble. The Supreme Court reaffirmed this stand again in the 1994 S.R. Bommai case and recently in the 2024 Balram Singh case,” Gehlot added.

RSS leader Hosabale, speaking at the Ambedkar International Centre, said: “The words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ were added to the Preamble during the Emergency. No attempt was made to remove them later. There should be a discussion on whether they should remain. I say this in a building named after Babasaheb Ambedkar, whose original Constitution did not include these terms in the Preamble.”

–IANS

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