A deliberate strategy to promote communal order.

Indian Constitution’s 75th Anniversary and the Struggle for Secularism and Socialism

• The Indian Supreme Court upheld the inclusion of “secular” and “socialist” in the Constitution’s Preamble on the 75th anniversary of the Constitution.

• The words were introduced through the Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act, 1976, by the Indira Gandhi-led government during the Emergency.

• The Supreme Court dismissed petitions challenging these additions, arguing that the absence of these terms in the original Preamble does not invalidate their inclusion.

• The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological backbone of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), launched a fresh offensive on the idea of India as enshrined in the Constitution.

• RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale demanded the removal of “secular” and “socialist” from the Preamble, arguing they were alien to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s constitutional vision.

• The RSS-BJP establishment is working relentlessly to dismantle this consensus and impose the idea of a Hindu Rashtra.

• The agenda has moved from fringe rhetoric to the political mainstream, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi equating ‘Ram with Rashtra and Dev with Desh’.

• The RSS-led campaign is aimed at discrediting and eliminating the socialist orientation of the Constitution.

• The Supreme Court’s recent decision interpreted the term “socialist” in the Preamble as synonymous with a welfare state, aligning with B.R. Ambedkar’s emphasis on the social and economic transformation of India.

• The RSS’s demand to remove the terms “secular” and “socialist” from the Constitution is part of a long-term project to dismantle the modern Indian Republic and institutionalize a new order built on religious supremacy, caste hierarchy, market fundamentalism, and political authoritarianism.

• The need for resistance is emphasized, with the Constitution being a political, social, and moral covenant forged in the crucible of our freedom struggle.