The removal of the Preamble to the constitution of India from some NCERT books for school children is indicative of the intent of the Modi regime not to sensitise the students of tender age about the guiding purpose and principles of the constitution.
Such a decision is a travesty of celebration of Constitution Day on November 26 every year, from 2015 onwards, to commemorate its adoption and enactment by the Constituent Assembly on that day in 1949.
Instances of tinkering with the Preamble
Repeated fiddling with the Preamble by the Modi regime has shocked the nation. For instance, on the occasion of the 66th Republic Day celebrations in 2015, the Modi government issued the text of the Preamble as an advertisement to several newspapers across the country and very tragically the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ were missing from it.
Paradoxically, a quote from Modi: “There is only one holy book for the Indian government, and that is the constitution. The government of India works according to the constitution,” formed part of the ad. It may be mentioned that the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ formed part of the Preamble in 1976 when the 42nd constitutional amendment added those two words to it. The altered Preamble read, “We, the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic…”
The Preamble to the Indian Constitution. Photo: Wikipedia Commons
The photograph which was published in the ad that year instead of representing India’s religious pluralism had images of people indicating features associated with the Hindu faith or tribal life and omitting a Sikh with a turban or a Muslim with a skull cap.
Then Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was on record saying, “There was no harm” in debating whether the Preamble should have the words secular and ‘socialist’.
The same lapse of omitting the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ from the Preamble was committed when copies of the constitution were circulated to members of parliament at the time of the inauguration of the new parliament building in September 2023. When then Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury charged that the copy of the constitution distributed to MPs to mark the first sitting in the new parliament did not have the words ‘Socialist and Secular’ in its Preamble, Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal played down the issue, saying the members might have been given a copy of the original constitution.
Chowdhury, however, stated, “They may say they have given us the original version. I think there is a deliberate design.”
But when the issue of saving the constitution became a huge electoral issue during the recently conducted general elections, Union home minister Amit Shah, not known for his articulations adhering to the ideal of secularism, held by the Supreme Court as the basic structure of the constitution, made a statement that even the word ‘secular’ would not be removed from the Preamble on Modi assuming the office of Prime Minister after BJP got 400 plus Lok Sabha seats.
Such flip-flops on secularism by top BJP leaders preceded the omission of the Preamble altogether from some NCERT books. It clearly shows that the Modi regime is not serious about the percolation of constitutional morality to school children when they are at a tender age pursuing education.
Reading of the Preamble during the anti-CAA movement
The country-wide agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act witnessed people reading out the Preamble in public places to make it clear to the powers that be that they are equal citizens regardless of their faiths and languages. That collective reading gave an enormous boost to uphold the constitutional vision of India and the idea of citizenship without any religious creed determining it.
Such an inclusive idea of citizenship stood in sharp contrast to CAA which mandated the granting of Indian citizenship to Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis of only Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on the ground that they were persecuted in those countries on account of their faiths. It excluded Muslims of those countries who also suffered persecution and very strangely Hindus of Sri Lanka are never covered by the scope of that Act.
File image of anti-CAA protests in 2020. Photo: Ismat Ara/The Wire
The reading of the Preamble by people in hugely attended mass gatherings across the country underlined the guiding values of the constitution upholding liberty, equality and fraternity. Every word of it was a huge challenge to the Hindutva vision of India which has the diabolical goal of crippling the neutrality of the Indian state to religion and the idea of secularism.
In fact, the distribution of the photocopies of the Preamble to people and its reading became part of the mass movement against CAA. It is worth noting that the ringing words in the Preamble such as secular, democratic, socialist, justice, liberty, dignity and fraternity acquired new urgency and reminded the people that the framers of the constitution, representing “We the people” had the lofty vision to make India inclusive, pluralistic, liberal and accommodative.
The constitution of India often wrongly described as lawyers’ paradise became the fulcrum of people’s movement in defence of their rights as equal citizens. Now the utter fiasco of the Modi regime to secure the rights and entitlements of those deprived and excluded on the grounds of caste or religion has been amply demonstrated to the entire nation. As people read the Preamble, they expressed their resolve to reclaim the ideals of the constitution often trampled upon by the powers that be.
Recent protests in Bangladesh for free and fair elections and lessons for India
The recent mass protests of people in Bangladesh were against the Sheikh Hasina government on the grounds, among others, that it was not formed on the basis of free and fair elections. The University Teachers Network (NTU) of that country issued a statement for a new constitution which should be anti-communal and anti-discriminatory and have robust provisions for the conduct of free and fair elections. All such demands bear significance for our country.
The reports of Vote for Democracy and Association for Democratic Reforms, apart from raising many questions about the impartial functioning of the Election Commission of India, alleged that the mandate of the people has been stolen to form the government headed by Prime Minister Modi.
In such a grave situation there is a demand for restoring the integrity and purity of the electoral process in India. Any failure to do so in this regard would exacerbate the situation and intensify people’s anger. The situation cannot be salvaged by removing the Preamble from the children’s books. Its restoration will constitute a small step in defence of the constitution for which people have come forward and made it an electoral issue in the recently concluded 18th general elections.
S.N. Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to the President of India K. R. Narayanan.
