The word “socialist” was added in the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution. It changed the description of India from a “sovereign democratic republic” to a “sovereign, socialist secular democratic republic”. It was Passed on 11th November 1976 when the entire opposition was in Jail during Emergency.

“Socialism” is an extremely noble and revolutionary political concept.

Describing in one line: “State works for the welfare of all the Citizens till the last person“.

It means the following:

  • The state will try to do an “equitable (not equal)” distribution of resources. How is equitable different from equal?
  • Say a family has 4 members. Dad, Mom, a 10 year old daughter and 7 year old son. The food cooked in house is not divided equally. Dad eats the maximum food and the Son eats the least. But Dad drinks the least milk and the son the most. In nutshell, the resources are distributed in the manner as needed by people.
  • The last person in the line is taken care of. The poorest person don’t pay taxes, but the richest ones pay maximum taxes.
  • The richest people get least government privileges, but the poorest get the most.

Lets look what happened in India in and after 1970s?

  1. Tax evasion is encouraged. For e.g. Agricultural income is not taxed. A salesgirl earning Rs40000/- pays taxes, but a farmer earning Rs40million goes tax free. And by showing other income as Agricultural income, lot of taxes are evaded.
  2. Huge amount of subsidies were doled by Govt. But as per Rajiv Gandhi 90% of the subsidies siphoned off.
  3. Natural resources likes Mines were either distributed free of cost or turned to Govt monopolies (like Coal or Telecom).
  4. In the plea of protecting environment, such laws were made which killed legal industries. This resulted to growth on lawless mining mafia. Examples are Mica or Coal.
  5. Corruption in Govt. offices skyrocket. No file moved after one paid a bribe. There was corruption before but after 1970s the corruption increased.
  6. Business monopolies were established. The businessmen close to ruling political party were allowed to operate. Without lack of competition, customers suffered.
  7. Cartels were formed. Essentially, few businessmen join hands, fix prices and don’t allow others to enter market. Example: The Mandi Dalals who are protesting on roads posing as farmers.

The above are just few examples. There are many more.

Whether the word “Socialist” was added to do the loot in the grab of socialism, that history will say.

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