‘Socialist, secular’ missing from Preamble displayed at Odisha Assembly, Opposition stalls proceedings

After the Winter Session of the Odisha Assembly started connected Tuesday, elder BJD person Ranendra Pratap Swain raised the contented instantly aft the obituary references and sought clarification from the Chair. Subsequently, BJD and Congress MLAs protested implicit the issue.

Speaking to reporters extracurricular the House, Swain said, “The Supreme Court connected Monday rejected the PIL which sought deletion of the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ from the Preamble of the Constitution. Unfortunately, the 2 words are missing successful the Preamble displayed successful the Assembly… It is an affront to the Constitution.” BJD MLAs demanded that the “error” beryllium corrected.

The Congress besides joined the chorus, with its Legislature Party person Ramachandra Kadam alleging a conspiracy down the issue.

“Omission of the 2 words indicates that the BJP has nary respect for the Constitution,” said Kadam.

However, the BJP has said that the Preamble displayed astatine the Assembly was a transcript of the Preamble adopted by the Constituent Assembly. BJP MLA Irasis Acharya said, “The 2 words — socialist and secular — were added to the Preamble of the Indian Constitution successful 1976, aft the 42nd law amendment… We person large respect for the Constitution of India and judge that the Preamble is the psyche of the Constitution. But the BJD is trying to mislead the radical by raising non-issues.”

The House witnessed aggregate adjournments amid uproar from the Opposition benches.