Yogi Cannot Continue as a Chief Minister

Justice Rajinder Sacher, Senior Member, National Executive, Socialist Party (India), and Dr Prem Singh, President, Socialist Party (India), have in a press release stated the following.

The Preamble to our Constitution specifically states that India is a Secular Socialist State. The Supreme Court of India has held that “Secularism†is the basic feature of our Constitution and any State Government which fails in upholding this basic feature has no right to continue. In fact in the Bommai Case, the Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of nine State governments on this score alone. Secularism, as per the Constitution, does not signify anti-religion. Secularism signifies giving equal dignity and respect to all religions. Of course it goes without saying that the Indian state has no religion of its own, nor for that matter can any religion claim superiority over another religion.

The Socialist Party reiterates that as per Article 75(4) of the Constitution of India, Yogi and his Cabinet members took oath before entering upon their offices which requires them to swear in the name of God that they will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established. The oath covers the protection of Secularism as mentioned in the Preamble to the Constitution as existing at the time of taking oath.

The Socialist Party believes that the shocking statement by Yogi, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, namely “I believe that the word ‘Secular’ is the biggest lie since independence†, should result in his immediate dismissal by the President who is a custodian of the Constitution.