Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday alleged that two important words were missing from the copy of the Constitution which was given to him. Holding a copy of the Constitution, Chowdhury, along with Rahul Gandhi and several other Congress and opposition leaders, walked from the old Parliament building to the new one on Tuesday. Chowdhury, Gandhi and other leaders held aloft the Constitution, before entering the new Parliament building. The DMK's TR Baalu and Kanimozhi, Gandhi, Congress general secretaries KC Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh, as well as several other opposition leaders, walked together to the new Parliament House building.
Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary has alleged that words socialist and secular were missing in the preamble of the new copies of the Constitution which were given to him on September 19, with which he went to the new Parliament House. Adhir said that everyone knows that both these words were added to the Constitution after an amendment in 1976. But today these words are not there in the Constitution, so it is a matter of concern. The Congress leader who is suspicious of government's intentions said that he has already informed this to Rahul Gandhi.
Chaudhary said, "..When I was reading it, I couldn't find these two words. I added them on my own... I also showed it to Rahul Gandhi...It was amended in 1976, so why shouldn't we get it today. Why do we do amendments? This shows the deliberate attempt to change our Constitution..."
However, MoS Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal said, "...When the Constitution was drafted, it was like this. An amendment was made later. This is the original copy. Our spokesperson has replied to the same."
The words secular and socialist were not there earlier in the Preamble of the Constitution of India. During the Emergency in 1976, the Preamble of the Constitution was amended and these two words were added to it. This amendment is known as the 42nd constitutional amendment in the country. Many times controversies have also been seen regarding this.
