Republic Day Advertisement: A Blatant Corruption Of The Constitution Of India
By Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere, VSM (Retd)
02 February, 2015
Countercurrents.org
OPEN LETTER
01 February 2015
From:
Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere, VSM (Retd)
475, 7th Main Road
Vijayanagar 1st Stage, Mysore-570017
E-mail:[email protected]
To:
Shri Pranab Mukherjee [email protected]; [email protected]
The President of India
Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi-110011
Shri Hamid Ansari [email protected]
Vice-President of India
New Delhi-110001
Hon'ble Sirs,
The reason for this letter is my grave concern that the Information & Broadcasting Ministry of the Government of India has, on Republic Day 2015, placed an official public advertisement showing the Preamble to the Constitution of India, in which the words “secular” and “socialist” were missing.
It is well known that these two words were added into the Preamble as part of the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution of India, and that they did not form a part of the Preamble to the Constitution on 26 January 1950. Notwithstanding that, the version of the Constitution which is extant, is that version which includes and incorporates all legally passed Amendments to date. Thus the official advertisement, which recognizes only the 26 January 1950 version of the Constitution of India, effectively rubbishes all the Amendments to the Constitution of India to-date. This, to my mind as an ordinary citizen, is misleading to the general public. The fact that ministers of the union government are arguing that there should be a public debate on the need for inclusion of the words “secular” and “socialist”, makes any thinking citizen suspect that the omission was deliberate, motivated and malafide.
The omission of the words “secular” and “socialist” in the official advertisement is a very serious matter, which demands your personal attention. It is not less than a blatant corruption of the Constitution of India, and direct disrespect of the Constitution. The Constitution of India needs to be protected against such attacks upon it, and I earnestly request and call upon you as President of the Republic of India, who has sworn to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the law, to initiate immediate and appropriate proceedings against the violators and corrupters of the Constitution of India.
Long live the Republic of India, and may the values it enshrines always remain valid in India's multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual society!
With respectful regards,
Sudhir Vombatkere
(Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere (Retd))
Major General S.G. Vombatkere, VSM, retired in 1996 as Additional DG Discipline & Vigilance in Army HQ AG's Branch. He holds a PhD degree in Structural Dynamics from I.I.T, Madras. He is Adjunct Associate Professor of the University of Iowa, USA, in international studies. With over 380 published papers in national and international journals and seminars, his current area of interest is strategic and development-related issues. E-mail: [email protected]
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