A plea has recently been filed before the Supreme Court seeking to remove the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ from the preamble to the Indian Constitution.

These words were added to the preamble through the 42nd constitutional amendment in 1976.

According to the PIL filed by advocates Balram Singh and Karunesh Kumar Shukla, these words violate some fundamental rights granted to the citizens of India by the Constitution.

Per se illegal for violating the concept of freedom of speech and expression enumerated in Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution and the right to freedom of religion guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution.

It also said that the amendment was against the historical and cultural theme of the great republic of Bharat, the oldest civilisation of the world, having clear concept of ‘Dharma’ different from the concept of religion.

This is how netizens reacted to the news.

The petition has also challenged the insertion of the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ in section 29 A (5) of the Representation of People (RP) Act that makes it compulsory for the political parties, applying for registration before Election Commission of India, to adhere to Socialism and Secularism.