The Indian constitutional assembly in November 1949 adopted the original preamble text which states: Liberty of thought, expressions, belief, faith and worship; Equality of status and opportunity; Fraternity ensuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of the nation.
Indira Gandhi during the emergency introduced Amendment 42 which was very unpopular was criticised, and clampdown civil liberties and widespread abuse of human rights by police angered the public.
The Amendment 42 stripped the powers of Supreme Court and inserted new clause towards parliamentary democracy. The Amendment also changed the preamble and changed the description of India from “Sovereign, democratic Republic’ to “Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, democratic republic’. It also changed the ‘unity and integrity of the nation’. It also transferred more powers to the central government from the state government. The pseudo secularism in India does not separate religion and state and this was done to appease Muslims so that they can have separate Sharia laws and code bills which are independent of Indian constitution.
The Constitution has enough powers for protection of rights of the minorities and the government with two thirds majority should bring Uniform Code Bill in the present parliament. Indian secularism is’ Freud ‘and as failure as it is understood in the West is based more on the basis of religious appeasement and the separation of people on the basis of religion.
Arun Vaidyanathan
By email
