Students in schools of Maharashtra will read out the Preamble to the Constitution every day during their morning prayers from Republic Day this year. The decision was announced by the state’s school education minister Varsha Gaikwad, who is from the Congress. A circular on this was issued on January 21.
According to Gaikwad, this is an old government resolution but will be implemented from January 26 this year. The government resolution was issued in February 2013 when the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party was in power in the state. However, it was not being implemented. Maharashtra is currently ruled by the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP combine, with Shiv Sen’a Uddhav Thackeray taking over as chief minister in November 2019. The earlier government was a Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine.
People protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in various parts of the country have been often seen reading out the Preamble. The Preamble, which starts with the words, “We, the People of India…” describes the country as a “Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic”. The protests have been going on across the country by people and political parties who feel the CAA – passed by both houses of the Parliament in December 2019 – goes against the spirit of the Constitution.
The Centre has been arguing though that the CAA will help grant citizenship to persecuted minorities from three Muslim majority countries – Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. But according to critics, it discriminates against Muslims.
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