The Congress on Thursday warned of “grave consequences” if any attempt was made to review the Constitution. Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, said on the first day of the Winter session of Parliament that the Constitution can only be amended, but not reviewed. Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu protested against Kharge's remarks and demanded them to be expunged as they were objectionable, reported PTI. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said she would expunge the objectionable words.

Kharge's remarks came after home minister Rajnath Singh caused pandemonium in the House by saying that the architect of the Constitution, Dr BR Ambedkar, did not find it necessary to insert the words “socialist” and “secular” into the Preamble. Singh said these ideals are “already in our basic nature”, and that the country’s founding fathers did not want changes to be made to the Preamble, a reference to the 42nd amendment to the Constitution. He also said that "secular" is the most misunderstood word in the country.

Earlier, Congress President Sonia Gandhi also criticised Singh's remarks, saying that the ideals and principles of the Constitution are under threat under the current BJP government. She also said that the history of the Constitution is closely linked with the freedom movement, which the Congress played a major role in. She added that those who had no contribution to the making of Constitution are discussing it today. She also brought up the intolerance issue, saying that recent incidents have proved that the principles of the Constitution is under attack.