‘Sacrilege to Sanatana’: VP Dhankhar slams inclusion of ‘secular’, ‘socialist’ in Preamble
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Kochi: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has reignited the national debate over the Constitution’s Preamble, calling the inclusion of the words "secular" and "socialist" during the Emergency a "sacrilege to the spirit of Sanatana", a term commonly associated with Hinduism. He also likened the Preamble to a person's parents — something foundational and unchangeable.
Speaking at the National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS) in Kochi on Monday, Dhankhar said:
“The Preamble to our Constitution was changed during the darkest period of our democracy — the Emergency — when hundreds and thousands of people were behind bars. No other country in the world has changed its Preamble, except India, and that too during such a time.”
His remarks follow his June 28 statement describing the Preamble as the "soul" of the Constitution — not meant to be tampered with or altered.
The words “secular” and “socialist” were not part of the original Constitution adopted in 1950. They were inserted in 1976 through the 42nd Constitutional Amendment during the Emergency imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Dhankhar’s statements come amid growing calls within the ruling establishment to review the inclusion of the two terms. On June 26, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — called for a re-evaluation of the Preamble’s phrasing.
Following this, Union ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Jitendra Singh supported a public discussion on removing the terms. Chouhan asserted that they were “not core to Indian culture”, while Jitendra Singh argued that they were added under “exceptional circumstances” and were never part of the original constitutional intent.
The issue has repeatedly surfaced in recent years. In 2015, a Republic Day advertisement issued by the Union government sparked controversy after omitting “secular” and “socialist” from the displayed Preamble. Again, in September 2023, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury alleged that copies of the Constitution distributed in the new Parliament building were missing the two words.
In November 2023, the Supreme Court dismissed petitions seeking to delete the terms, stating there was no valid legal basis to challenge a constitutional amendment enacted decades ago.
Dhankhar’s latest remarks are expected to further fuel the constitutional and political discourse around the sanctity, permanence, and ideological direction of the Preamble.
