Latest news with #42ndAmendment
Time of India
an hour ago
- Politics
- Time of India
'Preamble Not Changeable,, but Was Changed in 1976 During Emergency: VP Dhankhar Stirs Debate
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has reignited a fierce constitutional debate by declaring that while the Preamble is not meant to be changeable, it was altered in 1976 during the Emergency. His remarks follow the RSS's latest call to remove 'socialist' and 'secular' from the Preamble—terms that were added via the 42nd Amendment under Indira Gandhi's regime. The RSS claims these words were not part of Ambedkar's original vision, and questions their legitimacy. Congress and the Opposition, including Rahul Gandhi, have slammed the RSS, accusing it of undermining the Constitution. With Dhankhar noting that India is perhaps the only country whose Preamble has been amended, this controversy is once again fuelling the ideological tug-of-war over India's founding values. #jagdeepdhankhar #constitutionofindia #emergency #congress #rahulgandhi #rss #congress #preambledebate #42ndamendment #dhankhar #rssvscongress #secularsocialist #emergency1976 #toi #toibharat #bharat #breakingnews #indianews
India Gazette
3 hours ago
- Politics
- India Gazette
"Indira Gandhi ji murdered Constitution made by Baba Saheb Ambedkar ji": BJP MP Nishikant Dubey slams Congress over inclusion of words "socialist" and "secular" to Preamble
New Delhi [India], June 28 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey on Saturday slammed the Congress and accused Indira Gandhi of 'murdering' the Constitution made by Baba Saheb Ambedkar by implementing the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution, considered as the 'Mini-Constitution' because it made sweeping changes to the Constitution of India, affecting its basic structure, fundamental rights, and federal balance. The 42nd Amendment was passed during Indira Gandhi's tenure as Prime Minister, and it has been a subject of controversy. The amendment was enacted during the Emergency period, which has been widely criticised for its impact on civil liberties and democratic institutions. This amendment, enacted in 1976, introduced significant changes to the Constitution, including the addition of the words 'socialist' and 'secular' to the Preamble. It also expanded the Directive Principles of State Policy and introduced Fundamental Duties. 'The word secular is already written in the first paragraph of the Constitution; the murder of the Constitution written for Scheduled Castes and Tribes is in the blood of Congress', Nishikant Dubey's 'X' post said. Sharing a document of the Constituent Assembly from the year 1949, the BJP MP mentioned that Dr BR Ambedkar 'strongly opposed' the inclusion of socialist and secular words in the preamble of the Constitution. He mentioned that former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi murdered the Constitution by implementing the 42nd Amendment to it. 'Indira Gandhi murdered the Constitution made by Baba Saheb Ambedkar by implementing the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution. Our ideology strongly opposed the Emergency in accordance with that very amendment. This is the 1949 debate of the Constituent Assembly, Rahul Gandhi, please read it. Dr. Ambedkar not only strongly opposed the inclusion of the words socialist and secular in the Preamble of the Constitution but also rejected the amendment proposed by member K.T. Shah.', Nishikant Dubey's 'X' post read. Furthermore, taking a dig at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, Nishikant Dubey stated that Jawaharlal Nehru also supported Dr B.R. Ambedkar, followed by Rajendra Prasad, Jayaprakash Narayan, S. Radhakrishnan, Govind Ballabh Pant, and others. 'Your grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru also supported Ambedkar. Rajendra Prasad, Jayprakash, Radhakrishnan, Govind Ballabh Pant, Mavalankar, tribal leader Jaipal Singh, Sikh leader Bhupendra Singh, Christian leader Anthony, Muslim leader Mohammad Ismail--all opposed the inclusion of the words secular and socialist in the Preamble', Nishikant Dubey's 'X' post added. The 42nd Amendment to the Indian Constitution, enacted in 1976 during the Emergency, is a significant piece of legislation often referred to as the 'Mini-Constitution' due to the extensive changes it introduced. It amended the Preamble and added the words 'socialist', 'secular', and 'integrity' to describe the nature of the Indian Republic. It inserted a new Part IVA in the Constitution, which contained a list of ten Fundamental Duties for the citizens of India, such as respecting the Constitution, the national flag, and the national anthem, promoting harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood, safeguarding public property, and protecting the transferred five subjects from the State List to the Concurrent List, namely education, forests, protection of wild animals and birds, administration of justice, and weights and measures. This increased the legislative power of the Centre over the States. It expanded the power of Parliament to amend the Constitution and made it immune to judicial review. It also empowered the President to make laws during the proclamation of an emergency without the consent of the States. It curtailed the power and independence of the Supreme Court and the High Courts by restricting their jurisdiction, increasing the age of retirement of judges, and allowing the transfer of judges without their consent. It gave primacy to the Directive Principles of State Policy over the Fundamental Rights and authorised the Parliament to restrict or abrogate any Fundamental Right. It changed the relationship between the executive and the legislature by extending the tenure of the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies from five to six years, and by making the President and the Governors bound by the advice of the Council of Ministers. The 42nd Amendment Act was widely criticised as an attempt to establish a totalitarian and authoritarian regime in India. It was seen as a threat to the democratic and federal features of the Constitution. Many of its provisions were repealed or modified by the subsequent 43rd and 44th Amendment Acts in 1977 and 1978, respectively. (ANI)
The Print
4 hours ago
- Politics
- The Print
Not just ‘socialist, secular', a lot more from Emergency-era 42nd Amendment still part of Constitution
The 42nd was, by far, and still is, the most comprehensive of all the amendments. It not only amended the Preamble, but also 40 Articles and the Seventh Schedule, and added 14 new Articles. Hence, having altered the face of the Constitution of India, it is often referred to as the 'mini' Constitution. It was the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976 that added the two words, but it did not just change the Preamble. New Delhi: RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale, speaking at an event to mark 50 years of the Emergency Thursday, called for a discussion and review of the words 'socialist' and 'secular', which were included in the Preamble to the Constitution during the Emergency. Among other things, the 1976 amendment made fundamental rights subservient to the Directive Principles of State Policy. It gave the Parliament unbridled powers to amend any part of the Constitution. It restricted the powers of the Supreme Court and high courts to strike down any laws that violated the Constitution. Through these changes, it destabilised the separation of powers, tilting the scales in favour of the ruling central government. Moreover, the 42nd Amendment added to the Constitution the fundamental duties that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party have often emphasised. In 2019, soon after his victory in the Lok Sabha elections, Modi called for a 'paradigm shift' in India from the centrality of 'fundamental rights' to that of 'fundamental duties'. While subsequent amendments and court judgments overturned the amendments introduced by Indira Gandhi, other changes, including the fundamental duties and the changes made to the Preamble, despite periodic opposition, seem to have stood the test of time. No political party has ever formalised a bill to bring changes to these provisions. ThePrint explains the changes inserted by the 42nd Amendment, the changes that remain, and the changes that subsequent amendments or judicial pronouncements removed. Fundamental duties The 42nd Amendment inserted the fundamental duties into the Constitution through Article 51-A. The original 1976 amendment included 10 such duties, calling upon citizens to respect the Constitution, the national flag, and the national anthem; to cherish the noble ideals of the freedom struggle; uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India; defend the country and render national service when called; promote harmony and common brotherhood among all the people of India; preserve the rich heritage of the composite culture of the nation; protect the natural environment and have compassion for living creatures; develop scientific temper, humanism, and spirit of inquiry and reform; safeguard public property and abjure violence; strive for excellence in all individual and collective activity. Atal Bihari Vajpayee added to these fundamental duties in 2002 through the 86th Amendment to the Constitution, calling upon parents and guardians to 'provide opportunities for the education of his child, or as the case may be, ward between the age of six and fourteen years'. The Swaran Singh Committee recommended that the fundamental duties, in nature, be made obligatory, suggesting a law to provide for the imposition of a penalty or punishment for non-compliance. However, the 10 fundamental duties eventually included in the Constitution were a modified form of the committee recommendations. Also Read: BJP has learned to exploit web of power relations created by India's Constitution Ones that remained The 42nd Amendment introduced changes to the Seventh Schedule, which deals with the division of the crucial lawmaking powers between the Centre and the states. It transferred five subjects—education, forests, weights and measures, protection of wild animals and birds, and administration of justice—from the state list to the concurrent list. A new entry, 20A, was also added to the Concurrent list, adding population control and family planning as a subject. Both Parliament and state governments can enact laws on the subjects listed under the concurrent list. However, according to Article 254, if there is a conflict between laws, the central law overrides the state law. The 42nd Amendment also introduced Articles 323A and 323B to the Constitution, establishing the tribunals. Article 323A pertains to administrative tribunals that look into disputes or complaints concerning recruitment or conditions of service of people appointed to government posts or public services. Article 323B is about the establishment of the other tribunals by the Parliament or the state legislatures on assessment or collection of any tax, labour disputes, land reforms, and elections, among other matters. The Constitution has retained the provisions related to the tribunals. Additionally, the 1976 amendment added Articles 39A (equal justice and free legal aid), 43A (participation of workers in the management of industries), 48A (protection and improvement of the environment and safeguarding of forests and wildlife), and 39(f) (protection of children and youth). All of these provisions have also remained in the Constitution. Besides these, the 42nd Amendment made changes to Articles 81 and 82 of the Constitution, effectively freezing the number and boundaries of parliamentary constituencies– or the delimitation exercise— based on the 1971 Census until the publication of the post-2000 Census. In 2001, the 84th Amendment to the Constitution extended the deadline from 2000 to 2026. Ones that had to go Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress Prime Minister in India after the 1975 Emergency when the Janata Party assumed power. The Indira Gandhi government had to go, and so did many of the amendments it had introduced through the 42nd Amendment. The 42nd Amendment restricted the powers of the high courts, allowing them to consider only the constitutional validity of state laws, and gave exclusive power to the Supreme Court to consider the constitutional validity of central laws. It also added a provision requiring a minimum of seven judges to consider and a two-thirds majority of them to declare a law unconstitutional. The Constitution (Forty-third Amendment) Act 1977, however, removed these restrictions on the judiciary. The 42nd Amendment introduced a provision for Parliament to enact specific laws against anti-national activities and anti-national associations. However, the 43rd Amendment criticised the 'sweeping nature' of the powers and how open they were to 'abuse', leading to the deletion of the provision. The statement of objects and reasons of the 44th Amendment cites one of the primary objectives of the bill as providing safeguards to recent experiences that showed a 'transient majority' was capable of taking away fundamental rights. The 44th Amendment removed 'internal disturbance' as a ground for the proclamation of a national Emergency—the provision India Gandhi used. Instead, it included 'armed rebellion' as a ground for declaring an Emergency. The 42nd Amendment also increased the term of the Lok Sabha and the legislative assemblies from five to six years. However, the 44th Amendment restored their term to five years. Before the 44th amendment, Article 359 allowed the suspension of fundamental rights and their enforcement during an Emergency. However, the 44th Amendment reined in this power, asserting that even during an Emergency, the government could not suspend the rights in Articles 20 (protection in respect of conviction for offences) and 21 (right to life and personal liberty). Additionally, while Article 358 allowed the suspension of Article 19 during any national Emergency, the 44th Amendment inserted a safeguard—the government could suspend the right only when an Emergency was declared on the basis that 'war' or 'external aggression' threatened the security of India. Also Read: Is UCC a state issue or a national one? Uttarakhand vs the Constitution Minerva Mills case The changes made by the 42nd Amendment but not undone by subsequent amendments bore the brunt of a landmark Supreme Court judgment in what was popularly known as the Minerva Mills case. In the early 1970s, the Congress government nationalised Minerva Mills, a textile mill based in Karnataka, claiming that management of the mill affairs was highly detrimental to the public interest. Shareholders and creditors of the mills then approached the Supreme Court, challenging Congress's move. While the issues at the centre of their petitions were the government's nationalisation power and the right to property, it was the legendary jurist and lawyer Nani Palkhivala who decided to use the case to challenge Indira Gandhi's amendments. The key issues involved the amended Article 31C, giving the Directive Principles of State Policy primacy over the Fundamental Rights enshrined under Articles 14 (right to equality) and 19 (protection of certain rights, including freedom of speech and expression) of the Constitution. It meant that any laws made to give effect to any of the Directive Principles of State Policy could not be struck down by a court if they violated the right to equality or the freedom of speech and expression or other rights under Article 19. The 42nd Amendment also tweaked Article 368, which pertains to parliamentary powers to amend the Constitution. It provided the Parliament with unlimited powers to amend the Constitution. Meanwhile, it took away court powers to review the amendments. With the amendment to Article 368, the Congress government attempted to undo the landmark Kesavananda Bharati judgment, which laid down the basic structure doctrine, holding that certain fundamental features of the Constitution cannot be altered by the Parliament through amendments. However, the Supreme Court, through the Minerva Mills verdict, struck down these amendments, which the Indira Gandhi government introduced during the Emergency. The seeds At a time, the government was operationalising the Emergency, the Sardar Swaran Singh Committee constituted in 1976 sowed the seeds for the 42nd Amendment. Appointed by then Congress President D.K. Barooah, Sardar Swaran Singh, the then external affairs minister, headed the 12-member committee. The committee report, while giving a plethora of recommendations, said that while the Constitution functioned without any serious impediment, the interpretation of some of its provisions threw up difficulties—'more particularly when they concern the right of Parliament to be the most authentic and effective instrument to give expression and content to the sovereign will of the people'. However, there were warning signs about the extent of the changes suggested. Renowned lawyer Nani Palkhivala had warned that the committee report 'will in reality change the basic structure of our Constitution'. In an article published in the 4 July 1976 edition of the Illustrated Weekly of India, Palkhivala lamented that 'our monumental apathy and fatalism are such that the proposals are less discussed in public and private than the vagaries of the monsoon or the availability of onions'. On 1 September, 1976, the Indira Gandhi government introduced the amendment bill in the Lok Sabha, incorporating several of the changes suggested by the Swaran Singh Committee. In her speech in the Lok Sabha, the then prime minister asserted that the purpose of the bill was 'to remedy the anomalies that have long been noticed, and to overcome obstacles put up by economic and political vested interests'. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha then passed the bill, which received the President's assent on 18 December 1976. (Edited by Madhurita Goswami) Also Read: Tharoor calls Bhagwat's embrace of Constitution 'triumph', Sibal warns against taking it at face value
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
'Preamble not changeable': VP Dhankhar weighs in on Constitution debate; calls for 'reflection'
NEW DELHI: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday called the Preamble as the soul of the constitution. Speaking at a book launch event, Dhankhar acknowledged that India was the only country where the Preamble had been amended, a reference to the 42nd Amendment enacted during the Emergency in 1976. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now 'But this Preamble was changed by the 42nd Constitution (Amendment) Act of 1976,' he said, as quoted by news agency PTI. 'We must reflect. B R Ambedkar did painstaking work on the Constitution and he must have surely focussed on it," PTI quoted the VP saying. The Vice President's came following comments by RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale, who questioned the legitimacy of the inclusion of 'secular' and 'socialist' in the Preamble — a position that has drawn sharp criticism from the opposition. On Thursday, Hosabale stirred political waters by arguing at an event marking the 50th anniversary of the Emergency that 'secular' and 'socialist' were inserted into the Constitution during a period of authoritarian rule and should now be reviewed. He said these terms were not part of the original draft authored by Dr B R Ambedkar and were forcibly added during a time when civil liberties were crushed and democratic institutions undermined. BJP leaders including Union ministers Jitendra Singh and Shivraj Singh Chouhan said any 'right-thinking citizen' would support such a review. 'The word secularism was added during the Emergency. It should be removed. The country should think about this,' Chouhan said, arguing that equality of all religions is already the Indian ethos. Shiv Sena leader Shaina NC echoed the sentiment, suggesting that terms like 'pseudo-secularism' have undermined India's democratic principles. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Rahul Gandhi: 'RSS wants Manusmriti, not Constitution' Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi accused the RSS-BJP of harbouring a hidden agenda to dismantle the Constitution and deny the poor and marginalised their rights. 'RSS-BJP doesn't want the Constitution. They want Manusmriti. They aim to strip the marginalised and the poor of their rights and enslave them again,' he posted on X. Congress MP Jairam Ramesh accused the RSS of never accepting the Constitution. 'The RSS has NEVER accepted the Constitution of India... The RSS and the BJP have repeatedly given the call for a new Constitution. This was Mr Modi's campaign cry during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,' he posted on X.
Hans India
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Hans India
Jitendra Singh backs RSS call
New Delhi: Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday defended Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale's suggestion to reconsider the inclusion of the term "socialist" and "secular" in the Preamble of the Indian constitution, saying that any "right-thinking person" would support such a demand as these terms were not part of the original Constitution. "Any right-thinking citizen will endorse it because everyone knows they are not part of the original constitution, which Dr Ambedkar and the rest of the committee wrote. This is not the question of BJP vs is a matter of preserving democratic and constitutional values, and those violating the constitution are actually the biggest violators," Singh told reporters. He pointed out that the words "Secular" and "Socialist" were added later, through the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution during the emergency, and not by the original drafters.
