Bhubaneswar, November 26: The controversy in Odisha's Assembly over the missing words "socialist" and "secular" from the Preamble displayed there has on Tuesday caused stir and stalled the proceeding of the house.
This comes right after the Supreme Court rejected a PIL seeking the removal of these words from the Preamble.
Opposition MLAs from the BJD and Congress have stalled proceedings, calling it an affront to the Constitution. They argue that the omission indicates a lack of respect for the Constitution by the BJP.
After the Winter Session of the Odisha Assembly started on Tuesday, senior BJD leader Ranendra Pratap Swain raised the issue immediately after the obituary references and sought clarification from the Chair. Subsequently, BJD and Congress MLAs went to wel of the house and raised slogan against it.
BJD MLA Swain said, “The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the PIL which sought deletion of the words ‘Secular’ and ‘Socialist’ from the Preamble of the Constitution. Unfortunately, the two words are missing in the Preamble displayed in the Odisha Assembly. It is an affront to the Constitution.” BJD MLAs demanded that the “error” to be corrected.
On the contrary, The BJ claims that the displayed Preamble is a copy of the original adopted by the Constituent Assembly, which did not include these words until the 42nd Amendment in 19762. This has led to multiple adjournments and heated debates in the Assembly.
