UP Congress Minority Cell urges President to act against RS vice-chair, J&K HC CJ to protect Constitution

The Minority Cell of the Uttar Pradesh Congress has urged President Ramnath Kovind to take “appropriate action” against the Vice Chairman of Rajya Sabha, Harivansh Narayan Singh, and Chief Justice of J&K High Court, Justice Pankaj Mittal for “being part of the attempts to change the preamble of the Constitution”.

The Minority Cell has also directed all its units to raise the issue among the people and file hundreds of petitions before the President to avert any attempt to change the preamble which is considered as the “soul of the Constitution”.

Referring to a private member’s Bill introduced by former minister and Kerala MP K J Alphons during the Winter Session, the Cell, headed by Shahnawaz Alam alleged that “instead of rejecting the Bill, RS vice-chairman Harivansh has reserved it.”

“The Supreme Court has clearly said in its verdicts in the Keshvanand Bharti case and the Bommai case that the preamble of the Constitution cannot be changed,” Alam said.

Alphons sought the replacement of the word “Socialist” from the preamble of the Constitution with the word “Equitable”. However, the Bill ran into rough weather after Opposition MPs objected strongly to it, after which the Chair reserved a decision on its introduction.

Similarly, another BJP MP, Rakesh Sinha had last year sought to remove the word “Socialist” from the Constitution. He had moved a resolution saying that the word is “redundant” in the current scenario and should be dropped to “create space for economic thinking without a particular thought”.

On December 8, Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Justice Pankaj Mittal, said that the word “Secularism” should be removed from the preamble of the Constitution. His remarks had attracted widespread criticism.

Speaking at a public function in Srinagar, Justice Mittal said that the preamble should incorporate the phrase ‘Spiritual Republic of India’. He also said that “communist theory of State” did not apply in the Indian context.

“Cosmos of pure spirituality which discourages distinguishing humans onthe basis of religion…India was ruled by innumerable rulers — Pallavas, Chalukyas, Mauryas, Guptas, Kanishka (Kushans) and later the Mughals and British as well. But in no period was India defined on the basis of religion. India was never a Muslim country, Christian country or Hindu country,” said Mittal.

Saying that a motion of impeachment needed to be invoked against the judge for such remarks, Alam said, “Since the President of India is the protector of the Constitution, we hope he will take cognizance of the issue”.

“He (President) is the last beacon of hope. He should intervene and take appropriate action against those who are trying to change the preamble of the Constitution, if necessary,” he said.