CM Siddaramaiah attacks RSS over call to drop 'socialist', 'secular' from Constitution, BJP calls him 'second-hand secular'

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday attacked the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for opposing the words ‘secular' and ‘socialist’ in the Preamble of the Constitution while the BJP hit back at his "fear and insecurity towards a nationalist organisation".

Siddaramaiah was reacting to RSS Sarkaryavah Dattatreya Hosabale's call for a review of the two words that were inserted into the Preamble during the Emergency.

"This is not a casual remark — it is part of a long-standing agenda to reshape India’s democracy in their ideological image," Siddaramaiah said. "Let me say this clearly — if not for these constitutional values, people like me would never have had the chance to study, speak, or serve. That is the power of justice, equality, and secularism," he said.

Siddaramaiah admitted that the original Preamble did not have those two words "because it was already understood that India would be a secular and socially just democracy". Siddaramaiah said the two words were inserted "when these values were being attacked, especially by the RSS and its affiliates".

The CM charged that the RSS had refused to accept the Constitution when it was adopted. "...the RSS complained in 1949 that the Constitution had 'nothing which can be called our own', and lamented that it ignored India’s ancient traditions. Then RSS chief MS Golwalkar praised the Manusmriti as a more authentic guide for India’s culture and rejected democracy and equality as Western imports. This is the organisation now claiming to protect Indian values," he said, adding that Congress would "stand like a rock against any attempt to weaken or rewrite the Constitution".

In response, the BJP called out Siddaramaiah's "obsessive hatred" towards RSS and BJP. It is Congress that "repeatedly tried to rewrite, distort, and destroy it," the saffron party claimed.

"It was Congress that trampled on Baba Saheb Ambedkar’s Constitution time and again, all to serve dynastic greed and appease its minority vote bank. It was RSS-BJS that stood their ground during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency, while your party jailed citizens, crushed dissent, & dismantled fundamental rights," the Karnataka BJP said.

Describing Siddaramaiah as a "second-hand socialist secular", the BJP said Congress attacked the Constitution with Emergency, the Shah Bano case, imposition of President's rule, anti-speech laws and anti-Hindu policies. "The RSS-BJP will continue to safeguard the Constitution, will continue to stand with Dalits, Adivasis & will never allow the Gandhis to hijack India’s democracy again," the BJP said.