No threat of Emergency today, says Venkaiah Naidu

Govt sought to turn tables on Congress for imposing Emergency when fundamental rights...

New Delhi:

Government on Friday dismissed Opposition charge of a threat to the Constitution and sought to turn tables on the Congress for imposing Emergency when fundamental rights were suspended. Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu also insisted that the term 'secular' will remain part of the Preamble of the Constitution.

"Today there is no threat to the Constitution, no Emergency, there are no arrests (of political rivals), no supercession of judges. We must work together to strengthen the Constitution," Naidu said in the Lok Sabha while participating in the discussion on commitment to India's Constitution.

Responding to the debate on the term secularism witnessed in the House yesterday, he said the word is part of the Preamble "and will remain so. But what I want to say is that it should be in our hearts and should remain."

At the same time, he hit out at 'pseudo secularists' saying those who followed politics on the basis of caste and communal lines "call others as anti secular."

"People get swayed and misled by caste and religion. Then for five years, they cannot do anything," he said.

Naidu's remarks came in the backdrop of Congress President Sonia Gandhi's targeting of the government yesterday on the issue of intolerance alleging that ideals and principles of the Constitution were under threat and being attacked deliberately.