New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah has said that the saffron party respects the Constitution of India as it stands today, with the words ‘secular' and ‘socialist' in its Preamble.
A report published in The Hindu quoted Shah as saying, “The BJP believes that the Preamble, as it stands today, should remain. There is no need to change it.”
A row had earlier erupted over a Republic Day advertisement issued by the Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry which carried a picture of the Preamble to the Constitution as it appeared before the 42nd Amendment, without the words 'secular' and 'socialist'.
The government has invited severe criticism from several quarters over the advertisement with Congress claiming the government advertisement ‘deleted' the two words, which was only a prelude to their ‘substitution' with ‘communal' and ‘corporate'.
Shah also opted to describe the controversy ‘meaningless' over government advertisements saying that they were in the specific context of the Republic Day.
When asked on contentious issue of ‘ghar-vapsi' or re-conversion campaign by organisations affiliated to the Sangh Parivar, Shah said, “We are saying that let there be a law against forced conversions. Not a single so-called secular party has come forward on this. We do not want debate on this. We want support. There have been enough debates since 1950. We want a law.”
Shah denied that US President Barack Obama's farewell speech in Delhi n January 27, where he quoted Article 25 of the Constitution, was in reference to any incident in India and added that the party was in complete agreement with what he said.
“Everybody says that. Even we say it. Our Constitution says so. He did not say such things were happening in our country,” Shah said.
