Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday claimed that the copies of the Constitution handed to the MPs before entering the new Parliament building did not have the words ‘socialist secular’ in its preamble. However, Law Minister Ram Meghwal said that the distributed copies were the original copies of the Constitution where the aforementioned words were not there, along with "integrity under fraternity."
Holding a copy of the Constitution, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, along with Rahul Gandhi and several other Congress and opposition leaders, entered the new complex. Before entering the new building, MPs received copies of the Constitution of India, books related to the Parliament, a commemorative coin and a stamp.
However, the Congress leader in Lok Sabha claimed that the words 'socialist secular' were 'cleverly' removed from the copies of the constitution that were handed over to the MPs. "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...Their intention is suspicious," Chowdhury said.
Senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi too confirmed to reporters outside the Parliament today that these words were missing from the copies handed to them.
During the special session yesterday, Chowdhury was seen reading the Preamble of the Constitution in Parliament. Notably, he did mention the words 'socialist' and 'secular' while reading out the text.
The terms ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ were inserted into the preamble as part of the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution in 1976 during the Emergency imposed by then prime minister Indira Gandhi. The description of India was then changed from “sovereign democratic republic” to “sovereign socialist secular democratic republic”.
In a historic transition, the Parliament moved into a swanky new complex on Tuesday. The new four-storey triangular shaped complex has been named 'Parliament House of India', according to an official notification, whereas PM Narendra Modi proposed that the old building be renamed 'Samvidhan Sadan'.
