BJP, RSS planning to remove 'socialist', 'secular' from Constitution, says Rajasthan Cong chief

Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra on Wednesday launched a sharp attack on the BJP and RSS, accusing them of planning to remove ''socialist'' and ''secular'' from the Constitution.

He said public attention is being diverted from important issues through such tactics to ''polarise''.

His remarks come in the wake of a much discussed comment by RSS second-in-command Dattatreya Hosabale advocating that the words ''secular'' and ''socialist'' in the Preamble of the Constitution be reviewed.

Congress leaders have slammed the BJP and the RSS over Dattatreya's comment while Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan have spoken in support of his demand.

Speaking at the state Congress headquarters here on Wednesday, Dotasra said, ''They (BJP-RSS) have never accepted the Constitution and democracy. Now they have decided to remove socialism and secularism from it.'' ''When Dr BR Ambedkar drafted the Constitution, these people burned its copies. RSS had never even accepted the national flag. Today, when people are asking the prime minister questions on real issues, BJP and RSS are trying to distract them by communalising the debate.'' He said that people have understood such tactics and will not be misled by them.

Dotasra also targeted the BJP government in Rajasthan over the controversial sub-inspector recruitment case, claiming double standards.

''When our government was in power, they said that 400 sub-inspector posts were fake. But now in power, they haven't cancelled the recruitment and are telling the high court they can't cancel it,'' he said, alleging that the so-called cabinet sub-committee decisions merely reflect the chief minister's will.

Dotasra further alleged that the BJP has used the Kanhaiyalal murder case in Udaipur and the so-called ''Red Diary'' controversy to mislead voters before the last election.

Criticising governance under the BJP, Dotasra claimed officers in Rajasthan were being forced to do ''non-important'' work instead of focusing on their departments, and blamed excessive review meetings by the chief minister, which he said undermines the administration's efficiency.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)