Minister of Social Welfare H.C. Mahadevappa
| Photo Credit: BHAGYA PRAKASH K.
The Constitution awareness campaign launched by the Karnataka government on January 26 will culminate in Bengaluru on Saturday and Sunday (February 24 and 25), with the Constitution and National Unity of India Convention being held at the Palace Grounds.
Scholars, policymakers, and thought leaders at the two-day event will discuss and debate the problems faced by the country, the needs of the people, solutions provided in the Constitution, and the challenges ahead.
H.C. Mahadevappa, Minister for Social Welfare, shared with The Hindu his thoughts about the convention being helmed by his Department.
Excerpts from the interview:
What is the purpose of the campaign and convention?
People at large, and the elected government in particular, must realise and understand the dedicated work done by our forefathers, thinkers, freedom fighters and makers of the great Constitution of the largest democratic country in the world. There continues inequality, discrimination, and divisions in the name of caste and religion, while the Constitution gives no scope for this. That is why the convention and the Constitution awareness campaign. If we protect our Constitution, the Constitution will protect us.
Has the awareness campaign been successful?
Karnataka leads in enabling its citizens to become highly informed about the Constitution. The government launched a month-long programme on the Republic Day. As part of it, awareness jathas were held in all the districts, with 1025 special events covering 5,600 gram panchayats. It featured 50 tableaux which depicted contents related to the Constitution.
The jathas spread awareness of the Constitution through 1,415 rallies. Mobile vans equipped with LED screens played short movies on the essence of the Constitution and disseminated information on how it was prepared and adopted. Over a lakh people got copies of the Preamble to the Constitution. The social media has reached lakhs people. The State government organized more than 66 district-level, 12 State-level and 21 international-level special activities to promote the campaign.
CMCA (Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness), a Bengaluru-based NGO, along with the Department of Social Welfare, Karnataka, has trained social science teachers to set up clubs to create awareness about the Constitution in 800 schools in Karnataka.
We have also made it mandatory in schools and colleges, universities for students to read the preamble of the constitution. This is not for any political party and not for any religion or people of the region.
Are there threats to the constitution of India?
Certainly, freedom of expression is under threat today, and fundamentalism is on the rise. Constitutionally created bodies are used as political weapons. The Spirit of the Constitution is forgotten. Therefore, people should know that our constitution provides for justice, liberty, equality and fraternity.