Latest news with #Emergency
New Indian Express
30 minutes ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
No need for socialism in India, secularism not core of our culture: Shivraj Singh Chouhan
Veteran Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Rajendra Chaudhary slammed the BJP and the RSS for suggesting that the words 'socialist' and 'secular' in the Constitution's Preamble could be done away with. "These statements merely prove that the RSS and BJP don't believe in democracy and are making attempts to weaken the Constitution," Chaudhary told PTI. UP Congress chief Ajay Rai told PTI, "Such statements in fact validate what we have been saying for long that the RSS and BJP don't have any faith in the Constitution. This country belongs to all. The Congress will protect the Constitution at all costs." Chouhan said he was only 16 years old when the Emergency was promulgated and he was also arrested and taken to jail under Defence of India Rules. "Even today, I get goosebumps remembering those dark days. During the Emergency, if there was a frenzy to demolish houses at Turkman Gate, the public was crushed by bulldozers. If anyone protested, they were riddled with bullets. It was not bullets fired on the public, it was the murder of the Constitution," Chouhan recalled. The Union minister said there was neither any appeal, nor "vakeel" (lawyer), nor "daleel" (argument) and alleged that it was murder of the Constitution.
Indian Express
44 minutes ago
- Business
- Indian Express
Daily Briefing: Trump hints at ‘opening up India' with trade deal; L K Advani's prison notebook; Maa movie review
Good morning, Remember that cup of your favourite tea, served with some biscuits or wafers, and that tempting whiff of cakes getting baked in your neighbourhood, on a cloudy morning? Well, that's what the mood is like among the cricket club members in Yorkshire, England's deeply traditional county. With about 800 clubs and over 125,000 recreational players, just like at home, tea here is never taken light or lightly. The 'Cricket Yorkshire Tea of the Year' competition is back, with participants gearing up to send pictures of their mouth-watering tea spreads to the organisers. Word of mouth appreciation and some field trips during tea time shall decide the winner. The contest is expected to get spicier in the coming years with a few Indian clubs. With that, let's move on to the top 5 stories from today's edition: 🚨 Big Story Indian trade negotiators landed in the United States on Friday for in-person talks before the July 9 deadline for the reciprocal tariff pause runs out. American President Donald Trump said that the US and India 'may' sign a trade deal under which the country would 'open up.' The roadblock to a trade deal comes as the US has flagged several non-tariff barriers and high duties in India; however, it has yet to commit to several Indian demands. As the negotiations between India and the US for an interim trade deal enter their final phase, India's oil imports from the US jumped over 270 per cent year-on-year in the first four months of 2025. This jump underscores Delhi's strategy of enhancing American imports amid trade pact negotiations and diversifying its sources of crude oil in a volatile geopolitical and geo-economic environment. India is attempting to step up imports from the US across categories to address America's key concern of a widening goods trade deficit. ⚡ Only in Express The Emergency, 50 years on: Meenakshi Datta Ghosh was the youngest of the five ADMs posted in the national capital when the Emergency was imposed, only to find herself witnessing the Ramlila Maidan rally that preceded, and maybe even hastening the Indira Gandhi government's crackdown. The silence on the Delhi streets was heavy, laced with fear and dread, carving a perfect sight for Ghosh to see how the levers of power were oiled and wills were bent. 'The issue was do I comply with the law, or follow the political cum bureaucratic commands? Do I preserve process and procedure, or do I enable power?… I feel that the Emergency prepared me to overcome everything that came my way,' Ghosh recalls. From the prison diaries: Detained without trial for months in Bangalore Central jail, Lal Krishna Advani maintained a prison notebook. On December 28, 1975, when Emergency was in full swing, the then Jana Sangh leader wrote that PM Indira Gandhi wanted the Constitution to be changed after a public debate, but questioned her intentions, and countered her claim that the Opposition was in favour of an 'inflexible Constitution'. 'It is the democratic content of the Constitution which the present Establishment regards as a roadblock to its ambitions,' the Jana Sangh leader wrote. Read Advani's full entry here. 💡 Express Explained Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk launched its blockbuster weight-loss injectable semaglutide earlier this week, months after its competitor Eli Lilly's tirzepatide hit Indian markets — and nearly four years after these GLP-1 therapies took the United States by storm. These drugs are highly effective for weight loss, helping people lose 15% to 20% of their body weight. So, how do these 'miracle drugs' work? How were they discovered? And what are the other benefits of these drugs? We explain. ✍️ Express Opinion In our Opinion section today, Kanti Bajpai delves into the three major issues arising from American strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities, and the possibility of a nuclear deal. He writes: 'The conditions are ripe, therefore, for a new nuclear deal. That said, the ceasefire must hold, and Iran must have an authority figure that can deliver a deal. Neither is certain. In addition, the US may have to sweeten the deal economically by lifting sanctions. This will depend on Trump overcoming domestic and Israeli opposition. In short, there is a road ahead, but it is a rocky one.' 🍿 Movie Review Wondering what to watch this weekend? We've got you covered! Kajor-starrer 'Maa' has hit your nearby screens this Friday, presenting the story of a mother who would go to any lengths to save her family. Shubhra Gupta, in her review, writes: 'Mixing mythology and technology, 'Maa' presents Kajol as a contemporary woman fighting with all her might to keep at bay the dark forces targeting her young daughter… This is a film which is clearly well-intentioned. Smashing patriarchy is a task that films need to keep taking up, and Kajol has the heft to get the job done.' That's all for today. Have a lovely weekend! Until next time, Ariba
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
L K Advani's prison diaries: Constitutional morality, Indira Gandhi, and Thomas Jefferson
Detained without trial for months in Bangalore Central jail, L K Advani maintained a prison notebook. On December 28, 1975, when Emergency was in full swing, the then Jana Sangh leader wrote that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wanted the Constitution to be changed after a public debate but questioned her intentions, and countered her claim that the Opposition was in favour of an 'inflexible Constitution'. The observations are important given that 50 years after Emergency, both the government and the Opposition continue to swear by the Constitution and accuse each other of trying to damage it. Advani wrote that in an interview given just before the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session in Chandigarh earlier that month, Gandhi cited Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States and its third President, who believed that the life of a Constitution should be just two decades. 'Indira Gandhi's statement is a part of an interview she gave to the souvenir published on the eve of the Congress session at Chandigarh. In the interview, she quotes Thomas Jefferson's well-known dictum about the desirability of reviewing a country's Constitution every twenty years. She has cited him against the opposition whom she described as being opposed to any change in the Constitution,' Advani wrote in A Prisoners' Scrap-Book, his writings in jail from 1975 to 1977 that later acquired the form of a book. While Gandhi had accused the Opposition of being against any change in the Constitution, Advani said the latter was in favour of desirable change but not change that would damage democracy. The argument Jefferson made is found in a letter he wrote to James Madison, his successor as US President and the person considered the 'father of the American Constitution', on September 6, 1789. '… No society can make a perpetual Constitution, or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation. They may manage it then, and what proceeds from it, as they please, during their usufruct. The constitution and the laws of their predecessors extinguished, in their natural course, with those who gave them being… Every constitution then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years. If it is enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right.' Taking a dig at the Congress, Advani wrote, 'There has lately been a welter of statements by Congressmen that the Constitution needs to be changed early and that delay would be disastrous. Indira Gandhi threw cold water on such talk with a statement that changes in the Constitution should be preceded by a thorough-going public debate.' He added, 'As if an electric button has been pressed, the tenor of speeches regarding constitutional amendment changes. Every Congress chhut-bhaiya (small fry) now talks of the need for a public discussion on the issue.' Advani wrote in his diary that 'none of the opposition parties in the JP movement is opposed to desirable changes in the Constitution'. 'Indeed, if one were to go through the election manifestos of the various political parties for the 1971 and 1972 elections, one would find that they are more committed to constitutional reform than the ruling party. The Jana Sangh has favoured the setting up of a Commission on the Constitution to review its working. The Socialist Party has advocated a fresh constituent assembly. So, there is no substance in Indira Gandhi's charge that the opposition parties are for an inflexible Constitution,' he wrote. The Jana Sangh leader, who was later among those who founded the BJP, accused the Indira Gandhi government of trying to change the Constitution in an ill-intentioned manner. 'We, however, hold that the present Government's annoyance with the Constitution stems not from social or economic factors, as it keeps propagating, but from political considerations. It is the democratic content of the Constitution which the present Establishment regards as a roadblock to its ambitions.' Advani added, 'The Emergency empowers the Government to suspend any of the Fundamental Rights. It is significant that Article 31, namely that relating to the right to property, has not been suspended. The Articles suspended are Article 14 (right to equality), Article 19 (the seven freedoms of expression, assembly, association, movement, trade etc.) and Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty etc). These are the provisions which embody a citizen's democratic rights. The Executive can ride roughshod over these rights during an Emergency. It is doing so shamelessly these days.' The Jana Sangh leader accused the Emergency regime of trying to 'make its present authority perpetual under the Constitution'. 'The ruling party has the requisite majority also to make the necessary change in the Constitution. But the Keshavananda Bharati judgment which lays down that the basic democratic structure of the Constitution cannot be altered has become an insurmountable hurdle. That is why the Government is so bitter about this judgment.' Advani was referring to the judgment of the 13-member constitution bench of 1973 that while the Constitution gave Parliament the right to amend it under Article 368, it could not be used to destroy the Constitution. It was in this context that the Supreme Court put in place the basic structure doctrine: certain fundamental features such as democracy, secularism, the rule of law, and judicial review cannot be taken away by Parliament through constitutional amendments. Irony of quoting Jefferson Taking a dig at the irony of the PM for quoting the third US president, Advani said it was a 'pleasant surprise to hear Indira Gandhi quote Jefferson'. 'For the past few months, quoting Western Liberal thinkers has become passe, if not altogether retrograde and reactionary,' he wrote. 'However, one wonders how familiar Indira Gandhi is with the political philosophy of Jefferson. His views reek with sedition. God forbid, he wrote to a friend, that we should ever be twenty years without a revolution.' Advani added that 'one of Jefferson's biggest contributions to liberal political thought is his insistence that a citizen has the right to defy an unconstitutional statute'. 'What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that the people preserve the spirit of resistance?' he added, quoting Jefferson. He quoted the former US president as saying that 'censorship of any kind would negate the very spirit of democracy by substituting tyranny over the mind for despotism over the body'. Advani added, 'Jefferson was the author of the American Declaration of Independence proclaimed in 1776. There is no doubt that if Jefferson had been living in India in the year of grace 1976, his speeches and writings would have made him one of the greatest threats to the security of the State and landed him behind the bars as a MISA detenu.'
Scroll.in
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
‘Mask has come off': Rahul Gandhi on RSS calling for review of words in Preamble to Constitution
Criticising the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for calling for a review of words in the Preamble to the Constitution, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that the Hindutva organisation's ' mask had come off again '. The RSS is the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The Constitution hurts the RSS because it talks about equality, secularism and justice, Gandhi said on social media. 'RSS-BJP does not want the Constitution, but Manusmriti,' said the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. 'They want to enslave the marginalised and the poor again by snatching their rights. Their real agenda is to snatch away a powerful weapon like the Constitution from them.' Gandhi added: 'RSS should stop dreaming like this – we will never let them succeed. Every patriotic Indian will protect the Constitution till the last breath.' The Congress leader's comments came a day after the RSS on Thursday said that the inclusion of the words 'secular' and 'socialist' in the Preamble to the Constitution should be reviewed. 'The words were added during [the] Emergency, when fundamental rights were suspended, Parliament did not function, and the judiciary became lame,' said RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale. He added: 'So, whether they should remain in the Preamble should be considered. The Preamble is eternal. Are the thoughts of socialism as an ideology eternal for India?' Hosabale made the statements while speaking at an event marking 50 years since the Emergency was declared by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's government in 1975. The words 'socialist' and 'secular' were not part of the Constitution adopted in 1950 and were added in 1976 through the 42nd constitutional amendment. In November, the Supreme Court rejected a batch of petitions seeking the deletion of the two terms from the Preamble to the Constitution. The court said there was no legitimate justification for challenging the constitutional amendment several decades later. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) said on Friday that the 'proposal' made by the Hindutva organisation ' exposes the RSS' long-standing objective of subverting the Constitution and its intent to transform India into a Hindu Rashtra, in pursuit of its Hindutva project.' The Congress had on Thursday night criticised Hosabale's remarks, saying that the RSS and the BJP's ideology stood in ' direct opposition ' to the Constitution. The remarks were not merely a suggestion, but a 'deliberate assault on the soul of our Constitution', alleged the Opposition party. 'It is part of a long-standing conspiracy to dismantle Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar's vision for a just, inclusive and democratic India – something the RSS-BJP has always been plotting,' the party alleged. In 2015, a controversy erupted after the BJP-led Union government's newspaper advertisements on Republic Day featured a Preamble with the two words omitted. In September 2023, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury claimed that the two words were missing from the Preamble in the copies of the Constitution distributed to the MPs in the new Parliament building.
New Indian Express
3 hours ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Opposition livid with Hosabale remark on Preamble
NEW DELHI: Several Opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, denounced on Friday RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale's call to review the words 'socialist' and 'secular' in the Constitution's Preamble, terming it a 'deliberate assault' on the soul of the Constitution. Lashing out at the BJP and RSS, Rahul said the RSS preference for the 'Manusmriti' over the Constitution has been exposed once again. The response came after the RSS leader proposed reviewing the two words on Thursday, saying they were included during the Emergency and were never part of the Constitution drafted by B R Ambedkar. 'The RSS and BJP do not want the Constitution, they want 'Manusmriti'. They aim to strip the marginalised and poor of their rights and enslave them again. Snatching a powerful weapon like the Constitution from them is their real agenda,' Rahul asserted, adding, 'The RSS should stop dreaming this dream – we will never let it succeed. Every patriotic Indian will defend the Constitution until their last breath.'
