New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha witnessed an uproar on Wednesday (August 7) after leader of the opposition and Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that the Preamble to the Indian Constitution had been removed from National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks in a bid to “impose” the RSS-BJP’s communal ideology.
Leader of the House J.P. Nadda retorted that it was the Congress that had attacked the Constitution with the Emergency and that there is “no question” of tinkering with the Preamble or the Constitution.
The Hindu had reported that the NCERT had introduced changes to its textbooks and while the Preamble is included in some textbooks, such as the class six Science and Hindi books, it is noticeably absent from others, including the class six Social Science book and several class three textbooks.
Kharge raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha and said that the Preamble forms the foundation of the Indian constitution.
“Preamble is the spirit of our Constitution. It is the foundation of our democratic principles of liberty, equality and fraternity,” he said and went on to read a debate from the Constituent Assembly in November 1948.
“Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy. What does social democracy mean? It means a way of life which recognizes liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life,” he quoted from the debate.
“After its defeat in the elections, the BJP first removed Ambedkar’s statue,” he said as treasury benches rose in protest.
Rajya Sabha chairman and vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar interjected to say that Kharge was “deviating” from his subject.
“After its defeat in the elections, the BJP first removed Gandhi and Ambedkar’s statue and attempted to tinker with the Constitution. The people of this country will not allow this. The RSS and the BJP are attempting to impose its communal ideology by tampering with the curriculum and NCERT’s move is not correct,” Kharge continued amid loud protests from the treasury benches.
Dhankhar then said he will look into what has to be deleted from Kharge’s statement.
Kharge urged the government for a clarification and said that changing the curriculum is not right.
“Undoubtedly all of us are committed to the constitution and any perception to the contrary will hurt all of us,” said Dhankhar.
In his reply to Kharge’s statement, leader of the House J.P. Nadda said that a newspaper article can never be a source to be cited in the House.
“The leader of the opposition said that it has been heard, read..before presenting any issue the LoP of the Congress party should present the source in the House. The source can never be a newspaper. The source should be the original textbook,” he said.
“I have not seen the NCERT textbook or the change but I can say with certainty that the amount of responsibility taken by the Modi government to respect the Constitution, no other government has done so. There is no question of tinkering with the Preamble. Word by word, letter by letter, this government under the dynamic leadership of prime minister Narendra Modi is committed to.”
Accusing the Congress of imposing the Emergency under former prime minister Indira Gandhi, Nadda said that the RSS-the ideological parent organisation of the BJP- emerged stronger despite attempts by the Congress-led governments to ban it, as the organisation is “nationalistic”.
“Why did we have to wait till 2014 to remember the Constituent Assembly debates? This shows that this government which came in 2014 under prime minister Modi decided to have a Constitution Day and Samwidhan Diwas was celebrated. The Constitution was attacked on June 25, 1975. Not once, more than 90 times elected governments were toppled and the constitution was attacked,” said Nadda.
“As far as the RSS is concerned, your government tried to ban it twice. Your government imprisoned 1.25 lakh people for two years. But RSS has emerged stronger because they are a deshpremi (patriotic), rashtrapremi (nationalistic) organisation. The Preamble has been protected and will be protected.”
Union minister for education Dharmendra Pradhan had called the allegations baseless on Tuesday (August 6).
