Preamble Row Flares Up- After Tharoor's 'RSS Moved On' Bombshell, RJD Slams VP Dhankhar's Comments
TOI.in
/ Jun 29, 2025, 07:05PM IST
The ongoing Preamble debate has intensified, with sharp political exchanges following remarks by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who said the Constitution's Preamble was altered during the Emergency to add "socialist" and "secular," calling preamble the 'seed' of the Constitution. RJD MP Manoj Jha hit back, asking if the issue is with the words or their inclusion. Earlier, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had responded to Rahul Gandhi's 'Manusmriti' tweet, noting historical RSS criticism of the Constitution but claimed the RSS has 'moved on.' The row was first triggered by RSS leader Dattatreya Hosabale, who questioned the additions during an Emergency anniversary event.#preambledebate #indianconstitution #jagdeepdhankhar #socialistsecular #emergency1975 #samvidhanhatyadiwas #manojjha #shashitharoor #rahulgandhi #dattatreyahosabale #constitutionofindia #basicstructuredoctrine #indiraGandhi #indianpolitics #democracy #secularism #socialism #india #constitutionalamendment #parliament #supremecourt #rss #congress #rjd #toi #toibharat
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NDTV
32 minutes ago
- NDTV
Indian Youth Congress Lodges Complaint Against RSS Leader's Preamble Remarks
Bengaluru: The Karnataka Unit of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) Legal Cell on Sunday lodged a formal complaint against Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale for calling for a reconsideration of the inclusion of the terms "socialist" and "secular" in the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. The complaint was lodged at the Sheshadripuram Police Station by Legal Cell Chairman Sridhar, Co-Chairman Samrudh Hegde, and other office-bearers and advocates. The complaint specifically refers to Hosabale's remarks on June 26 during a public gathering commemorating the Emergency, where he called for the reconsideration and removal of the words from the Preamble. Sridhar, in a letter attached along with the complaint, stated, "On 26th June 2025, while addressing a public gathering commemorating the Emergency, Mr. Hosabale openly stated that the words 'socialist' and 'secular' in the Preamble to the Constitution should be reconsidered and removed. These remarks, made at a politically sensitive event by a high-ranking ideologue of an organisation, are not just ideational commentary." "Such attempts to publicly erode constitutional values must be treated with utmost seriousness and urgency. A clear message must be sent that no one is above the Constitution, and any public advocacy of unconstitutional means or dismantling of constitutional principles will face due process of law," it added. Earlier today, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP Sandosh Kumar wrote a letter to RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat, urging him to recognise the critical role of secularism and socialism as foundational values of the Indian Constitution after Hosabale's call. In his letter, Kumar criticised recent statements made by a senior RSS functionary, questioning these principles and arguing that they are essential to India's pluralistic and just society. He also urged the RSS to formally accept the Constitution and cease actions that undermine its spirit. "These principles are not arbitrary insertions but foundational ideals that emerged from the lived experiences of India's oppressed and the visionary imagination of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, and many others who sought to create a just, pluralistic Republic. In a diverse country like ours, secularism ensures unity in diversity, while socialism promises justice and dignity to each of our citizens. To ridicule or reject these values is to negate the promise made to the people of India at the moment of our nation's liberation from colonial rule," Kumar wrote. On June 26, RSS general secretary Hosabale suggested reconsidering the inclusion of the terms "socialist" and "secular" in the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. Hosabale was addressing an event on the 50th anniversary of the emergency, held at the Dr Ambedkar International Centre, jointly organised by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (under the Ministry of Culture) and the Ambedkar International Centre. Speaking at the event, he emphasised that the emergency wasn't just a misuse of power but an attempt to crush civil liberties. Millions were imprisoned, and freedom of the press was suppressed. He remarked that during the emergency, terms like "socialist" and "secular" were forcibly inserted into the Constitution -- a move that needs to be reconsidered.
Economic Times
32 minutes ago
- Economic Times
RSS has moved on: Shashi Tharoor on Rahul Gandhi's remark that RSS prefers Manusmriti to Constitution
Rahul Gandhi criticized the RSS, claiming they favor Manusmriti over the Constitution after Dattatreya Hosabale suggested reviewing 'socialist' and 'secular' in the preamble. Shashi Tharoor acknowledged Gandhi's historical accuracy regarding past RSS stances. However, Tharoor believes the RSS has evolved since then, suggesting they should clarify their current views. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads After Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hit back at RSS for Dattatreya Hosabale's call for a review of the words 'socialist' and 'secular' in the preamble by stating that RSS preferred the Manusmriti to the Constitution, CWC member Shashi Tharoor said while Gandhi's statement was accurate in stating what the then Sangh leader MS Golwalkar and others stated at the time of Independence, he (Tharoor) felt "RSS has moved on from those days"."Historically, he's (Gandhi) referring to the fact that it was a criticism expressed at the time of the adoption of the Constitution... But I think the RSS itself has moved on from those days. So, as a historical statement, it's accurate, whether it's a reflection of how they feel today, RSS should be in the best position to answer," he said in Ahmedabad in response to media queries on Gan- dhi's comment.
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
The forced sterilisations of Emergency
As India marks the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, one of the most horrific and least acknowledged chapters of Indian democracy is of state-sponsored, forced sterilisation practices, popularly known as nasbandi in public memory. The sterilisation campaign, masquerading as population control, was a spuriously neo-Malthusian, eugenic exercise of state violence. It is an atrocity almost without any parallel in any democracy, for its sheer scale, brutality, and brazen invasion of the bodily autonomy of men and women. What began as a globally endorsed population policy, promoted by agencies such as the Ford Foundation, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, was converted into a grotesque tool of political repression. While India's National Family Planning Programme had long advocated sterilisation as a voluntary method of birth control, the campaign took a violent turn during Emergency, under the ambitious yet authoritarian leadership of the unelected maverick politician, Sanjay Gandhi, and his cronies. The targets were mainly the poor, slum dwellers, Dalits, minorities, and rural communities. Past instances Historically, there have been forced sterilisation practices globally. They were often justified by public health, eugenics, or social hygiene discourses. Researchers have documented that in the U.S., over 60,000 people, including the mentally ill, poor, Black, Native Americans, and Latina women, were sterilised between 1907 and 1979 under state-level eugenics laws. In Sweden, investigative reports revealed that 63,000 people deemed 'unfit' for parenthood were sterilised between 1935 and 1976. This scandal eventually forced the government to apologise publicly and offer compensation to survivors. Nazi Germany was notorious for weaponising modern biological science. Its 1933 Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring mandated sterilisation for about 4,00,000 people before and during World War II. Combining anti-poverty rhetoric and authoritarian disciplining of marginalised populations, Peru's President Alberto Fujimori oversaw the forced sterilisation of 3,00,000 mostly indigenous and rural women in the 1990s. China's one-child policy, which resulted in millions of coerced and non-consensual sterilisations, particularly targeting rural and ethnic minorities, exposed the darker side of biopolitics of contemporary world. The Emergency's abuses Anthropologist Emma Tarlo in her seminal research in Delhi mentions that people referred to the Emergency as the 'nasbandi ka vakat (the sterilisation time)', and the very term Emergency (Āpātkāl) became synonymous with sterilisation, a stigma for many in public life. The Shah Commission, set up the investigate the Emergency's abuses, recorded 1,778 sterilisation-related deaths and hundreds of injuries. It also noted that thousands of sterilisations happened unofficially. Leading researchers and demographers Pai Panandiker and K.G Jolly in their district-level studies of family planning point out that India performed around 1.3 million vasectomies in 1975 and 2.6 million in 1976. Within a year, total sterilisations — male and female combined — jumped to approximately 8.3 million in 1977, making it the most extensive coerced sterilisation campaign ever conducted globally. The northern States of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh turned into the 'vasectomy belt'. In Patna in Bihar, where the Jayaprakash Narayan-led student movement was most intense, there were many nasbandi excesses. No one was spared, whether ticketless passengers, daily wage labourers, beggars, under trial prison inmates, or wandering monks. Young people who apparently looked 'hippie' were targeted. Possessing a sterilisation certificate became a grim necessity for daily survival. An individual needed a sterilisation certificate even to buy essential goods from a ration shop. Villagers often fled homes, hid in fields and forests, and clashed with police squads. Underground activists of the student movement organised protests in Patna, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Saran, and Bhojpur. Reports suggest that the Bihar government conducted about 4,50,000 sterilisations in 1976-77. Quotas were imposed on block officials, panchayat heads, teachers, doctors, and local police house officers. Incentives of cash, rice and job preferences were paired with punishments such as job losses and withheld salaries and promotions. As resistance to forced sterilisations grew, so did repression. The Uttar Pradesh police opened fire on October 16, 1976, in Khalpur in Muzaffarnagar, killing 25 people, mostly Muslim men. The incident was known as the Nasbandi Goli Kand (sterilisation bullet massacre). Local reports mention that in Haryana's infamous Uttawar village raid in November 1976, police and 700 officials sterilised 180 men after cutting power and surrounding the area. The Emergency's sterilisation campaign revealed what Cameroonian political theorist Achille Mbembe called the 'necropolitics'. By the 1977 elections, sterilisation had become a chilling symbol of the atrocities of the Emergency, contributing decisively to the Congress's humiliating rout in most of north India. No wonder the song 'Kaya mil gaya sarkar tumhe/ Emergency lagake/ Nasbandi karake (What did you gain, Oh government, by imposing the Emergency… by forcing sterilisations)' from the film Nasbandi (1978) became etched in public memory.
