UP, Assam CMs attack Congress for adding ‘secular, socialist’ in Preamble | India News – Times of India

LUCKNOW/GUWAHATI: UP CM Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday accused Congress of “strangling” the Constitution by inserting “secular” and “socialist” in the Preamble, words not there in the statute drafted by BR Ambedkar. Yogi’s BJP colleague and Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma struck a similar note, suggesting the word “secular” need not have been added later as that quality was “already intrinsic” to Indian civilisation.
Both CMs were speaking at events to mark Constitution Day. “The original Constitution, drafted by Babasaheb Ambedkar, didn’t include the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’. Congress added them during Emergency. People have taught a befitting lesson to those who betrayed the Constitution,” Yogi said in Lucknow.
In this year’s LS polls, Congress and its allies had accused BJP of planning to alter the Constitution, a factor that many inferred had dented BJP’s vote share. In Guwahati, Sarma said the Constituent Assembly had established there was no need to demonstrate that Indian civilisation was secular.