Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday stirred another debate, opining that the RSS, which had once demeaned the Constitution, lamenting the absence of inputs from Manusmriti in it, has now moved on from such a position.

“At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, Mr Golwalkar, amongst others, said that one of the great flaws of the Constitution is that there is nothing of the Manusmriti in it. But I think the RSS itself has moved on from those days. So, as a historical statement, it’s accurate. Whether it’s a reflection of how they feel today, the RSS should be in the best position to answer that,” Tharoor told the media after participating in a discussion hosted by the Ahmedabad Management Association on “Diction, Diplomacy, and Discretion.”

Tharoor’s comment came amid his party’s strong condemnation of RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale’s recent demand to remove the terms ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ from the Preamble to the Constitution.

“During that (Emergency) period, terms like ‘socialism’ and ‘secularism’ were forcibly inserted into the Preamble of the Constitution. Today, we must reflect on whether these words should remain there,” Hosabale had said.

Condemning the remark as a “deliberate assault on the soul of our Constitution,” Congress accused the RSS and BJP of championing an “anti‑constitutional” agenda.

“It is part of a long-standing conspiracy to dismantle Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s vision for a just, inclusive and democratic India—something the RSS-BJP has always been plotting. Let us not forget: when the Constitution was adopted, the RSS rejected it. They didn’t just oppose it—they burnt it. In the Lok Sabha elections, BJP leaders did not even hide their intent. They declared openly that they needed over 400 seats to rewrite the Constitution,” Congress had said in a post on X.