Challenges to Indian Parliament, Democracy and Constitutional Values

The Preamble of India’s Constitution declares India as a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic. The words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ were added to it through the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution in 1976. The later addition of these words gave rise to a view that the Constitution was not secular in its origin. This can be dismissed as the opinion of a tiny minority which uses secularism as an abusive word today. Although the word secularism was not used in the Preamble when the Constituent Assembly adopted it, the content, the vision, the approach and the tenor of the Constitution are secular.