May be the author overlooked this. The origianl Indain constitution declares India to be a sovereign, democratic republic, assuring its citizens of justice, equality, and liberty; it is Indira Gandhi for her own persoanl political gains added the words "socialist" and "secular" to the definition in 1976 by 42nd constitutional amendment. Same ways the reservations are also asked to be reviewed for 10 years, which where never happened. The fathers who drafted our constitution have a vision for the country which our politicians lack. We amended our constitution more than 50 times in its 55 years of history, where as Japan had amended its constitution 2 times in its 200 years of consistutional history.
RE:42nd Amendment
by sham sundar on Apr 11, 2008 05:57 PM Permalink
I concur...and i request the writer to correct this error...Soverign and democratic emphatic yes...but the words secular & socialist certainly were not part of the Original constitution!!! Ram Kelkar either has overlooked this aspect of history or else it was just a miss!!! Let him answer...i just don't understand why writers don't care about comments and take pains in replying...Hope he would do so now atleast...
RE:42nd Amendment
by Dipak Bose on Apr 11, 2008 06:37 PM Permalink
Not exactly true. Secualr was added in 1976 during the Emergency, but Socialist was there in the original. Look at the Directive Principles of the Constitution. It says that the Indian Union should strive for s socialistic pattern of society. It is the original constitution as well. You can not say fathers who drafted our constitution either. Indian constitution was based on 1935 India Government Act, written by the British, then in 1947-51 it was again revised by the British officers. Indians have very little to write on Indian constitution. This is the fact. There is no such thing called founding fathers. All were illegitimate persons put there by the British. India was not USA. So Don't copy words which do not fit for India.
