As the State government prepares for the grand launch of the reading of the Preamble of the Constitution in educational institutions on September 15 on the occasion of the International Day of Democracy, a tussle over who gets the credit for the initiative has broken out between the BJP and the ruling Congress.
BJP leaders are criticising the State government terming it a publicity stunt. “Reading the Preamble of the Constitution of India in all the educational institutions is the BJP government’s programme. But now, the State government is doing politics on this issue,” they alleged.
With the approval of the State cabinet on June 15, 2023, the state government ordered to make the reading of the Preamble of the Constitution of India compulsory in all educational institutions on June 30. The State government is planning to launch the programme in a big way and the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister, and Social Welfare Minister will lead thousands of children and citizens to read the preamble of the Indian Constitution on September 15 on the steps of the Vidhana Soudha.
The government has also opened the registration to participants and over 3.6 lakh people have registered up to September 4. The registration will be closed on September 12.
Amidst all these developments, the Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) has made compulsory the reading of Preamble of the Constitution in all educational institutions during the time of the morning prayer.
The BJP has argued that it was during the BJP government’s tenure that the decision was taken in a meeting headed by the Chief Minister on December 19, 2019, after which the then government had ordered the same on January 1, 2020. The government launched the programme in 2020, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, the programmes did not take off. In the post-Covid era, the state government failed to implement it.
B.C. Nagesh, former Minister of DSEL told The Hindu, “The BJP is always bound to the Constitution of India. Therefore, we made it mandatory to read the Constitution preamble during the time of prayer in all the educational institutions. I launched this programme in three different schools. However, instead of reviewing and relaunching the programme, the Congress government again took a decision in the cabinet and is planning to launch it in a big way. They are doing all these things for political agenda. It is nothing but a publicity stunt.”
Arun Shahapur, former member of the Karnataka Legislative Council from BJP, said, “Instead of the DSEL, the Department of Social Welfare initiated to implement the programme investing huge money for the advertisement. Whose money is it?” he asked.
Minister for Social Welfare H.C. Mahadevappa was unavailable for comments.
However, M.C. Sudhakar, Minister of Higher and Technical Education, said, “The BJP cannot tolerate the Congress government’s success and the success of the guarantee schemes. Actually, they are giving wide publicity in the name of Make in India and other schemes without proper implementation. But, reading Preamble of our Constitution is our government’s programme and we are giving more importance to this. The BJP government had failed to launch this programme and were always making statements against the Constitution.”
