Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Opposition Congress party on Wednesday raised in Rajya Sabha the issue of dropping of Preamble to the Constitution from certain NCERT textbooks saying this was an attempt to impose communal ideology on the country - a claim which Union Minister J P Nadda countered saying the government was committed to protecting the constitution.
Raising the issue, Leader of the Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said Preamble, which is the soul and foundation of the Indian Constitution, used to be published in NCERT textbooks.
The objectives stated by the Preamble are to secure justice, liberty, equality to all citizens and promote fraternity to maintain unity and integrity of the nation, he said and went on to read the debate in Constituent Assembly in November 1948, where it was argued that political democracy in the country should also be made a social democracy.
"Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy. What does social democracy mean? It means a way of life which recognizes liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life," he quoted from the debate.
Kharge said every citizen especially the future generation needs to be educated about foundational principles and values of Indian democracy and Constitution as well as the sacrifices made by freedom fighters such as Mahatma Gandhi, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, B R Ambedkar, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
He then went on to make a statement on shifting of statues of Gandhi and Ambedkar in Parliament complex - which received objection from the treasury benches and chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said Kharge was deviating from the subject.
"RSS and BJP are trying to impose their communal ideology on people by tampering with curriculum. And the step taken by NCERT is not right," he said amid protests from the ruling side.
At this point, Dhankhar ordered that nothing will go on record and he would "look into what has to be deleted... last four minutes to be deleted." "You are digressing from the issue," he told Kharge.
Kharge demanded that the government give a clarification on the issue, present facts before the House and withdraw the move to drop Preamble from textbooks.
"Undoubtedly all of us are committed to the constitution and any perception to the contrary will hurt all of us," Dhankhar said.
Leader of the House and BJP president J P Nadda said though he has not seen either the NCERT textbook or the change but can with all authority state that there is no question of any needling of the Constitution.
"Word by word, letter by letter, this government under the dynamic leadership of (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi is committed (to the Constitution)," he said.
On Kharge quoting from Constituent Assembly debate, he said it was only under the Modi government that November 26 (when the debate took place) was declared Constitution Day. He went on to attack Congress for imposing Emergency in 1975 and dismissing more than 90 elected governments in states in violation of the Constitution.
On RSS, he said the Congress government tried to ban the organisation twice and jailed 1.25 lakh people for two years but "RSS emerged stronger because it is nationalist organisation and an organisation connected to the grassroot." "Preamble has been protected and will be protected," he declared.