Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of Parliament KJ Alphons, who sought to amend the Preamble to the Constitution, was on February 4 absent in Rajya Sabha when his turn to introduce the Private Member’s Bill came.
Deputy speaker Harivansh Narayan Singh, during the debate on Private Member’s Bill during the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament, called Alphons to move the motion to introduce the Bill that seeks to replace the word “socialist” with “equitable” in the Preamble to the Constitution, among other changes. But Singh had to move to the next item on the agenda because Alphons was not present in the House.
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Calls and text messages to Alphons did not elicit any response.
Earlier, despite protests, Singh said the Bill can be introduced in the House.
The Bill triggered a political row during the Winer Session of Parliament in December with Opposition members, including Manoj Jha of the RJD and Jairam Ramesh of the Congress, leading the chorus to disallow it on the grounds that Preamble is part of the "basic structure" of the Constitution and cannot be amended.
"Amendment to the Preamble is an attack on the edifice of the Constitution. Do you want to ransack it,” Jha had said in December.
Deputy Speaker Singh had then reserved the move to introduce the Bill amid resistance by the Opposition. Singh, however, said on February 4 that the Bill can be introduced.
“As regards the objection raised by Manoj Jha that the Bill doesn’t have the previous sanction or recommendation of the President, I may clarify here, that there is no such requirement for introduction of the Bill under reference," Singh said. Therefore, there is no question of any doubt on the admissibility for introduction seeking to amend the Preamble to the Constitution, he said.
Also, read : MC Interview | Socialism has lost its meaning, says KJ Alphons, who seeks to amend Preamble to Constitution
"Be that as it may, the Bill has been listed in today’s agenda for introduction. The House may decide about the manner of disposal of motion of the Bill when moved by KJ Alphons,” the Rajya Sabha deputy speaker said.
After, deputy speaker’s remarks, Congress leader Anand Sharma said that neither the council of states, not the House had mandate to amend the Preamble to the Constitution. BJD MP Amar Patnaik said that earlier two changes were brought in the Preamble to the Constitution by the 42nd amendment. “Two words socialist and secular where inserted in the Constitution. So, it is not the Preamble cannot be changed,” he said.
Also, read: Explained | What is a Private Member’s Bill? How does it differ from government Bills?
The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2021 by Alphons seeks to replace the word “socialist” with “equitable” in the Preamble to the Constitution, among other changes. The Bill also suggests changing the words “equality of status and of opportunity” in the Preamble to “equality of status and of opportunity to be born, to be fed, to be educated, to get a job and to be treated with dignity”. It has proposed to add “access to information technology” in the objectives of the Preamble.
In an earlier interview with MoneyControl, Alphons, the politician from Kerala and former Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism, had said that the Bill was in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s action of empowering the people at the lowest level and that it wants words “socialist” that carries “political connotations of the Russian socialist era” to be removed from the Preamble.
No Private Member’s Bill, introduced on Fridays, has been passed by the Parliament since 1970. Till date, the Parliament has passed 14 such Bills, six of them in 1956.
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