Right Word | Constitution Day: Five Amendments During Emergency That Subverted The Constitution |
As the nation commemorates 26 November as ‘Constitution Day’, the journey of India’s guiding framework in the post-colonial era has given us many lessons to learn. One of the key lessons we learnt as a nation—in a hard way—was how the Indian Constitution was subverted by the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government during the Emergency. And the irony is that the same political party is now projecting itself as the defender of the Constitution!
After imposing Emergency on the midnight of 25-26 June, the first thing Prime Minister Indira Gandhi did was to put the entire opposition in jail and gag the Press. Then she went ahead with several amendments to the Constitution.
One of the most crucial amendments was the 42nd Amendment in 1976 through which she changed the Preamble of the Constitution by adding the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’. Clause 2(a) of the 42nd Amendment Bill said, “In the Preamble to the Constitution, for the words ‘Sovereign, Democratic Republic’ the words ‘Sovereign, Socialist Secular Democratic Republic’ shall be substituted."
This is the most talked-about part of the 42nd Amendment, but the debate on this needs to be expanded further as there were several unconstitutional provisions introduced through this amendment.
This amendment gave unrestricted power to Parliament and the state legislatures, as it was only the Congress and its allies that were ruling the states as well as the Centre. The opposition-led government headed by M. Karunanidhi of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam........