Preamble 'not changeable', but was 'changed' in 1976 during Emergency, says Dhankhar
New Delhi (PTI): Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday asserted that the Preamble of a constitution is "not changeable" as it is the "seed" on which the document grows.
He said the preamble of no other constitution has undergone change except that of India.
"But this Preamble was changed by the 42nd Constitution (Amendment) Act of 1976," he said noting that the words "socialist", "secular", and "integrity" were added.
"We must reflect," he said adding that B R Ambedkar did painstaking work on the Constitution and he must have "surely focussed on it".
His remarks at a book launch event here came after the RSS on Thursday called for reviewing the words 'socialist' and 'secular' in the Preamble of the Constitution, saying they were included during the Emergency and were never part of the Constitution drafted by Ambedkar.
The Congress and other opposition parties have slammed RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale's call for a national debate on whether the terms 'secular' and 'socialist' should remain in the Preamble, terming it "political opportunism" and a "deliberate assault" on the soul of the Constitution.
As Hosabale's strong pitch for a review of the two words inserted in the Preamble of the Constitution during the Emergency days (1975-77) kicked up a political row, an article published in an RSS-linked magazine Organiser said it is not about dismantling the Constitution but about restoring its "original spirit", free from the "distortions" of the Congress' Emergency-era policies.
Union minister Jitendra Singh and senior BJP leader sought to defend the call by the second senior most functionary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS), saying any right-thinking citizen will endorse it because everybody knows that these words were not part of the original Constitution written by Dr B R Ambedkar.
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Dharmasthala Mass Burial Case: Complainant appears before SIT, questioned for over seven hours
Mangaluru: In a major development in the Dharmasthala mass burial case, the whistleblower, a former sanitation worker appeared before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in Mangaluru on Saturday, July 26. He was questioned for more than seven hours and recorded his statement before investigating officer Jitendra Kumar Dayama.
According to sources, the complainant’s legal team received a notice late on Friday night, July 25, summoning him for questioning at the newly established SIT office located at the PWD Inspection Bungalow (IB) in Mallikatte, Kadri. Two rooms within the bungalow have been reserved for the SIT’s operations.
A day earlier, senior officials from the SIT, including DIG M N Anucheth and DySP Dayama, reached Mangaluru and officially took over the case files from the Dakshina Kannada district police. The SIT is currently examining land survey records and other crucial documents related to the alleged burial sites as part of the probe.
The case, which has triggered widespread concern, is based on a complaint filed by the former employee who claimed that he had buried the bodies of several women and children on instructions from his superiors over a period spanning 20 years between 1995 and 2015. The complainant also submitted skeletal remains, reportedly exhumed from one of the alleged burial sites, as evidence to support his claims.
The Mangaluru rural police had registered a case based on the complaint on July 4. Following public pressure and demands for a fair probe, the Karnataka government constituted the Special Investigation Team on July 19.
The SIT is headed by senior IPS officer DGP Pronab Mohanty, who is also in charge of the Internal Security Division and Cyber Command. His appointment came after the complainant’s legal team appealed to the government to assign an impartial officer to lead the investigation.
