RSS calls for review of ‘Socialist’ & ‘Secular’ in constitution preamble, citing emergency-era insertion –

The RSS has called for reviewing the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ in the preamble of the Constitution, saying these were included during the Emergency and were never part of the Constitution drafted by B.R. Ambedkar.
 
Addressing an event on 50 years of Emergency here, RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabole said, Babasaheb Ambedkar never used these words in the preamble of the Constitution.
 
He added that the words were added during the Emergency, when fundamental rights were suspended. He said discussions were held on this issue later, but no effort was made to remove the two words from the preamble.
 
Recalling the days of Emergency, which was announced on June 25, 1975, Hosabale said while thousands of people were put in jail and tortured during that period, freedom of the judiciary and media was also curtailed. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari also attended the event. Speaking at the event, Gadkari has said that the Emergency was a dark period in the history of the country and lakhs of people suffered due to it. Mr Gadkari said, there was widespread barbarism and atrocities during the period of the Emergency.