Rakesh Sinha, a Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha, is moving a private member’s resolution, urging the government to bring an amendment to drop the word “socialism” from the Preamble to the Constitution. The resolution that has been included in the list of business for Friday, says the word socialism was inserted in the Constitution by the 42nd constitutional amendment act in 1976 when the Emergency was imposed and fundamental rights were suspended.
“During emergency the opposition parties MPs were imprisoned and the 42nd amendment was in acted without wide ranging discussion,” the resolution says.
Though socialism and secularism were not part of the preamble adopted on 26 November 1949 by the Constituent Assembly, they were later added.
Explaining the reason for moving this resolution Sinha said Indian constitution has egalitarian provisions. “Even during the constituent assembly debates Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar had contested the use of the word socialist, the entire constituent assembly agreed therefore there was no need to use the word. It was inserted in the Preamble as a political gimmick during emergency to divert the attention of people and under pressure from the former Soviet Union,” he said.
Claiming that the word is redundant, Sinha said the Congress party over time kept shifting its political policy; “…in 1948 it supported a socialistic pattern then it moved to democratic socialism. Finally it settled for mixed economy and welfare state. Economic Policy cannot be orthodox there has to be space for it to evolve; it has to be based on time, context, requirement of people. Just like in the era of globalisation we cannot follow the policies of the 1950s and 60s of protectionism,” he said.
Sinha said with interventions such as the passage of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code that seeks to consolidate the existing framework by creating a single law for insolvency and bankruptcy, the Narendra Modi government is reversing the erosion of the welfare state which happened during the UPA era.
In his submission, the MP has stated India has a long tradition of an egalitarian society and collective conscience of India endorses quality in all spheres of life; India’s Constitution is replete of mechanism to remove inequality.
“The Constitution also empowers both state and central government to formulate flexible policies to address the ideas in the sound in the Constitution,” the resolution says.
Commenting on the resolution, CPI’s D Raja said, “If the word socialist is redundant and society is indeed egalitarian then why does the Modi government use slogans like Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas?”
As per Rajya Sabha rules, a member other than a minister who wishes to move a resolution on a day allotted for private members’ resolutions, has to give a notice to that effect at least two days before the date of draw of lot.
