On the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale reignited a long-standing debate by demanding the removal of the terms ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ from the Preamble of the Indian Constitution — words that were added during the Emergency in 1976 by the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government.
Speaking at an event in Delhi on Thursday, Hosabale described the Emergency (June 25, 1975 – March 21, 1977) as a “dark chapter” and accused the Congress of abusing constitutional power to suppress democracy.
“Those who did such things are today moving around with the Constitution’s copy. They have still not apologised. Your ancestors did it. You must apologise to the country,” Hosabale said, addressing his remarks to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi.
He also recalled the widespread censorship, arrests of opposition leaders, and forced sterilisation campaigns during the 21-month Emergency. According to Hosabale, “freedom of the judiciary, media, and civil society was crushed,” and the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ were inserted into the Preamble “without national consensus.”
The remarks came a day after the BJP-led central government observed ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’ (Constitution Killing Day) on June 25 to mark the Emergency’s imposition. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also launched a scathing attack on Congress, calling the Emergency “one of the darkest periods in Indian democracy.”
“No Indian can forget how the Constitution was undermined, Parliament silenced, and courts controlled,” PM Modi said in a series of posts on X.
The Congress responded sharply to the RSS leader’s remarks. Party general secretary Jairam Ramesh accused the Sangh of having a long history of disdain for the Indian Constitution.
“The RSS has NEVER accepted the Constitution of India,” Ramesh wrote on X. “It had openly criticised the Constitution in 1949 and wished it were based on the Manusmriti.”
He also pointed to Prime Minister Modi’s 2024 election campaign, which, according to him, was marred by the BJP’s covert calls to overhaul the Constitution — a proposal voters decisively rejected at the ballot box.
“The RSS-BJP ecosystem continues to push for changes to the basic structure of the Constitution. Mr. Hosabale should read the November 2024 Supreme Court verdict that already addressed this,” Ramesh said.
The Chief Justice of India, in that ruling, had reaffirmed the inviolability of the Constitution’s basic structure, which includes secularism and socialism as core values.
The words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ were inserted into the Constitution’s Preamble by the 42nd Amendment Act during the Emergency. Critics, including the RSS, argue that this was done undemocratically without wider debate, while defenders say the terms simply reflected what the Constitution already stood for.
