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RS calendar keeps secular row alive
Even before the dust settled over omission of ‘Socialist’ and ‘Secular’ from the government advertisements on occasion of the Republic Day, a fresh row over Preamble set the political ball rolling in the Capital. This time, the government did it with the Rajya Sabha calendar which features the picture of the Preamble without the key words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’.
New Delhi: Even before the dust settled over omission of ‘Socialist’ and ‘Secular’ from the government advertisements on occasion of the Republic Day, a fresh row over Preamble set the political ball rolling in the Capital. This time, the government did it with the Rajya Sabha calendar which features the picture of the Preamble without the key words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’.
It was the Congress party that took strong objection to the government’s advertisement in which ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ were missing, leading to a controversy. The NDA ally, Shiv Sena, aggravated it further by demanding permanent removal of the words from the Constitution.
But, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Venkaiah Naidu was quick to stamp out the political fire when he said in Chennai that the government was “committed to secularism and it didn’t think of removing it (the word Secular)” from the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. “We are committed to secularism. There is no problem about it. Secular is there in the blood of Indian people. That’s part of our culture,” he said.
But, Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad kept the controversy alive by saying: "There is no initiative from the government on this. We merely reproduced the Ministry of I&B April 14, 2012 advertisement. But please remember that these two words were introduced in the Preamble through the 42nd Amendment during the Emergency.
” Clarity on political stance of BJP appears vague with several leaders talking in different languages. With hardline leaders strongly defending it while moderate leaders presenting a secular face of the government. There is more than meets the eye of the political agenda of the BJP for the Rajya Sabha calendar is planned well in advance and so is the case with the Republic Day advertisements.
It appears that it is not the handiwork of the officials but well-thought out strategy of the government to rub the Congress on the wrong side. Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha has defended its calendar, saying that it was not a mistake. Gurdeep Sappal, OSD to Vice-President Hamid Ansari said that the calendar is part of the history and heritage series which reproduces the original historical document hand calligraphed volume of the Constitution by Nandalal Bose
