Deletion of words 'secular' and 'socialist' from copies of Constitution reflects BJP's biased mindset: NCP

Mumbai: The NCP on Wednesday charged that the alleged deletion of words "socialist" and "secular" from the Preamble in the copies of the Constitution presented to MPs on the opening day of the new Parliament building showed the "biased mindset" of the ruling BJP.

Earlier in the day, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury alleged that the words "secular" and "socialist" were missing from the Preamble in the copies of the Constitution given to lawmakers. However, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said the copies carried the original version of the Preamble of the Constitution and that these words were added later to it after constitutional amendments.

In a statement, Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party's spokesperson Clyde Crasto said, "The BJP government says that this printed text was the original Preamble. If BJP does not want to respect the constitutional amendment of the Preamble and wants to follow the original, then why have they moved out from the original 'Temple of Democracy', the old Parliament building? Why did they not stay in the original one?" Removing the words 'socialist' and 'secular' is truly a display of BJPs biased mindset, he alleged.

"The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should stop fooling the people of India with their absurd replies because people know what they are trying to really achieve," Crasto said.