Patna:Shiv Sena’s dema-nd to remove the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ from the Preamble of the Constit-ution on Thursday drew flak from Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and Mahatma Gandhi’s great grandson Tushar Gandhi.
The two described the demand as “destructive”, “reprehensible” and “contemptuous statement made out of ignorance and bigotry” at a stamp and painting exhibition in the state capital to celebrate 100th year of Mahatma Gandhi’s arrival in India from South Africa.
Inaugurating the exhibition, Manjhi said “Some people are saying secularism is not needed and India should forget about it. This is very worrying.” “Mahatma Gandhi always spoke about co-existence, but have we become so insensitive that we can say secularism is not needed.
Did Mahatma Gandhi dreamt of Hindu Raj and fought for it? He always talked about serving the society and the poor,” the chief minister added.
People were getting trapped in religious bigotry, casteism, and language fights, he said. “There is a need to move towards humanity, otherwise India will suffer.” Shiv Sena had on Wednesday demanded deletion of the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ from the Constitution as they were not there in the original Preamble.
“Such a demand is reprehensible. It is a contemptuous statement made out of ignorance and bigotry. Leave alone pursu-ing, it should not be given importance by anybody,” Tushar Gandhi told repor-ters on the sidelines of the function.
Tushar, who is also the Managing Trustee of Mahatma Gandhi Foun-dation, stressed on the need for secularism, diversi-ty and plurality in the coun-try. He said the most important aspect of US President Barack Obama’s visit was his suggestion on ‘religious tolerance’.
“If our country again gets divided in the name of religion, then it will no longer remain a nation.” He said Gandhi should be removed from the high pedestal of ‘Mahatma’ and made a family member as ‘Bapu’.(PTI)
