Recall Babasaheb on constitutional morality: Priyank

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: As India celebrated its 74th Republic Day, many have pointed out the difficulties marginalised communities face in the fulfilment of promises made to them by the Constitution.

Congress MLA from Chittapur and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) Communications Chairman Priyank Kharge on Wednesday quoted the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution BR Ambedkar, who had warned that the implementation of constitutional promises required an inculcation of constitutional morality, which India lacked.

A relevant quote from Ambedkar’s undelivered speech and the anti-caste manifesto Annihilation of Caste (AoC) reads: “Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated. We must realise that our people have yet to learn it. Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on an Indian soil that is essentially undemocratic.” Kharge, a former state minister, said that the quote could have multiple interpretations, including society’s hostility towards personal freedoms and social justice, apart from the continued relevance of caste.

“What is this top-dressing? If you read that entire essay (AoC), Babasaheb is referring to our caste system here, where there is a hierarchy. You may have got the Constitution, but that doesn’t ensure you are completely free of it (caste) because of the deeply entrenched systems that prevail there. I think it’s still there.

Even now, SCs (Scheduled Castes) are not allowed to enter temples,” he said, adding that in 2023, Indians were yet to develop a moral sense of duty to agree to certain constitutional promises. The AoC was published in 1936. The MLA pointed out that it was still commonplace for prominent Dalit political leaders to be denied entry in temples.

“The (Union) Minister of Social Empowerment Narayanaswamy was not allowed in one village (in Tumakuru district),” he said. He also made a mention of the recent incident involving a Dalit groom walking down to a local temple in Shyagoti village in Gadag district for a pre-marriage ritual and finding the premises shut.

(Box) BBC docu-series: Can’t hide truth, says Cong On the topic of the Union government’s de-facto banning of BBC’s documentary series ‘India: The Modi Question’, Kharge said that attempts to muzzle the truth surrounding the massacres that took place in Gujarat 2002 will prove to be futile, and chose to quote the Buddha on the same. “In Buddhism there is a saying, which Buddha had once quoted: ‘You cannot hide the sun, the moon and the truth for long’. It’s as simple as that,” Priyank said.