By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
New Delhi: An online campaign has begun urging people to sign a petition against what they termed as “mischievous” government advertisement on January 26 that omitted words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ from the Preamble of the Indian Constitution.
“We are shocked by the conspicuous absence of the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ from the Indian constitution’s preamble used in the customary advertisement in newspapers of January 26, greeting the people of India on the Republic Day,” says the online petition started by the website IndiaResists.com.
The advertisement was issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and also carries a quotation by the Prime Minister.
“At the time when the people of India, and even the global community, have genuine apprehensions about the secular character of the Indian democracy, which stands threatened by a right-wing government formed with less than one-third of the popular votes, this omission is utterly condemnable,” the petition added.
“Secularism has been pivotal to the post-Independent India, binding all communities together as equal citizens. Similarly, the word socialist was added to emphasize the social commitments of the state in a country like India. These two values are non-negotiable and any attempt to dilute them would face strong resistance. We condemn the I&B Ministry and demand an apology from the government for this mischievous advertisement on Republic Day,” it added.
The online petition posted on the website on Tuesday, January 27 morning already has over 570 signatories by 7.00 pm.
Please sign petition -
Condemn the mischievous govt ad on 26th January, omitting ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ from… http://t.co/rY5HkMuviO
— India Resists (@India_Resists) January 27, 2015
Later in the evening, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, government of India, took cognisance of resentment across social media and took to one of social media platform – Twitter – to explain government position. Showing a photo of what he called “original Preamble”, Rathore tweeted: “This is the original Preamble. The words ‘Socialist’ and ‘Secular’ were added in 1976.”
“The controversy surrounding the ad is uncalled for. Photo of original Preamble was a way of honouring founding fathers of the Constitution. Incidentally, the same picture was used in official advertisements earlier also,” Rathore tweeted.