Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said that anti-national forces opposed to the Constitution of India are making attempts to return the country to the era of Manusmriti and that all citizens must be ‘aware and careful about the conspiracy’.
Siddaramaiah was speaking on the occasion of International Democracy Day on Friday on the steps of the Vidhana Soudha, as he led a mass reading of the Preamble to the Constitution.
The event was live-streamed across the state with more than a crore people including students joining the Chief Minister in reading the Preamble. The event was organised by the social welfare department.
The Karnataka Chief Minister said that Manusmriti would regard 95 per cent of the people of the country as slaves to five per cent of the people.
“We should be alert about those who are opposed to the Constitution. These forces want to destroy the Constitution and return the country to the laws of Manusmriti. The laws of Manusmriti treat 95 per cent of the people of this country as slaves. This is the social structure prescribed by the Manusmriti,” Siddaramaiah said.
He urged everyone, especially students, to read at least the Preamble to the Constitution and resist any attempt by regressive forces to overrun its principles.
“We will survive if democracy survives. Democracy will survive if the Constitution survives. So, it is the duty of every citizen of this country to protect democracy and the Constitution,” Siddaramaiah said.
“Our Constitution begins with the sentence ‘We the people of India’. If the objectives of the Constitution are not understood and followed, he creation of an equal society will remain a distant dream”, he said.
The Karnataka government has made it mandatory for all schools to have the Preamble read out every working day at the assembly. “We are implementing the reading of the Preamble in all schools to educate children about the essence of our Constitution,” Siddaramaiah said.
He referred to Babasaheb Ambedkar’s speeches at the Constituent Assembly where he had spelt out the objectives of the Constitution.
“He spoke very clearly about what the Constitution means, what its Preamble means, its objectives, the kind of society and nation that should be built, and how its citizens should live,” the chief minister said.
Siddaramaiah also said the Congress government was acting according to constitutional values and would make efforts to educate students on the values enshrined in the Constitution and its preamble.