Keshvananda Bharti v. State of Kerala: In this case, the Supreme Court held that the Preamble is a part of the Constitution and can be amended under Article 368 of the Constitution.
The two words “secular” and “socialist” were never reflective of the “basic structure” of the constitution and they today are indeed so very far from reflecting the ethos of the nation too. So, it’s time to get them removed from the Preamble in the same emphatic manner they were inserted i.e. through a Constitutional Amendment passed by a majority in Parliament should the Supreme Court of India choose to prevaricate on the matter on the back of vague niceties of legality.
India is no longer a socialist state . A socialist state is one that supports a political or economic philosophy that says society as a whole, rather than private companies, should own or control various goods and services. That way of thinking today in India is obsolete if not dead. The private ownership of the nation’s resources is something which the elected government’s policy-makers are actively advocating. In fact, India would wholly fit the description of a nakedly Capitalist society but for the fact that its capitalism is still tempered to a considerable degree by Social Welfarism.
India is also no longer a Secular State… at least not certainly in the distorted and abused sense in which the term had always been used in the past seven decades since the Constitution was consecrated in 1950. Yesterday in Parliament , the House passed a historic resolution hailing the consecration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, and the Pran Pratishtha on Jan 22, 2024 the significance of which the Government itself has declared will give “constitutional sanction to future generations to take pride in its heritage.” Thus, it is now clear as daylight that Ram Rajya has ousted and replaced Secularism as the hereditary heritage of India.
So, it is hoped that the Supreme Court in its magisterial majesty and wisdom will be able to see clearly the writing on the wall writ large by the mood of “We the People of Bharath” who are expected to overwhelmingly vote the present ruling dispensation back to power in a couple of months.
Jai Shree Ram ! Jai Hind ! Long live the Constitution of India !
Sudarshan Madabushi