THE Supreme Court must be commended for raising the issue of whether the word ' socialist' in the Preamble to the Constitution should continue to define our republic. The court had earlier refused to engage on the issue while hearing a petition that challenged the provision making it mandatory for political parties to pledge adherence to the policy of socialism at the time of registration.
That the word ' socialist' was inserted into the Preamble by the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution during the Emergency is not the main reason why we must rethink the issue.
After all, the same controversial amendment passed by the Indira Gandhi government also introduced in the Preamble the word ' secular' which has stood us in good stead.
The reason why we must knock ' socialist' off the Preamble is because India can no longer be honestly described as pursuing the socialist model of development. When India embarked on economic liberalisation in 1991, there was an implicit recognition that socialism had failed us.
Jettisoning ' socialist' does not mean abandoning the poor. Like many western democracies, we remain, a welfare state. It's only that we need to shed the historical baggage that demands that all parties in our democracy should continue to swear by socialism.
