No plan to change Preamble, says govt; disowns Bhagwat’s remark

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 24

The government on Tuesday clarified in Lok Sabha that it had no plans to change the Preamble of the Constitution to delete the words secularism and socialism from it.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu made this statement after the Lok Sabha witnesses a pandemonium in Zero Hour when Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia asked the Government about its position in the matter.

He referred to Communication Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's comments inviting a debate on the issue of amending the Preamble to see whether secularism and socialism required an explicit mention therein. 

"There is no proposal before the government to change the Preamble, which was amended in 1976 during the Emergency to add the said words. The issue started due to a government advertisement on Republic Day, which reproduced the original Preamble. It was a printing issue and the government will take precaution in future to ensure that the amended Preamble is reproduced," Naidu said.

Nothing to do with RSS remarks on Mother Teresa: BJP

Naidu today said the government had nothing to do with the remarks made by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Mother Teresa. "We don't have anything to do with statements made by heads of private institutions," said Naidu after Congress sought a clarification on the remark that Mother Teresa converted people in the name of service and compassion.

Speaker of Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan later disallowed further clarifications on the issue citing rules which say statements attributed to unrelated members (Mohan Bhagwat) in this case cannot be raised in the House.