Dropping ‘secular’ an affront to idea of India

Not just for India, secularism is vital for any diverse democracy aspiring to uphold civil liberties.

The growing demand from various right-wing quarters in India to drop the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ from the Preamble of the Constitution is misplaced, imprudent and divisive in equal measure. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)—the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—has mooted the idea of debating whether these words ought to remain in the Preamble, with several senior union ministers and chief ministers of the BJP throwing their weight behind this push.