Bengaluru, Jan

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday cautioned about the "conspiracy" to make the Constitution irrelevant by taking away the autonomy of constitutional institutions.

He also called on the people to take a pledge to protect the Constitution of this Republic Day.

The Chief Minister said this in his message to the people of the state on the 77th Republic Day.

"Those who are opposing the Constitution are against social change and social justice. People should understand that they are opposing laws and programmes that are in favour of the poor, farmers, workers, Dalits, and the exploited," Siddaramaiah said.

In a statement, he said, even when Babasaheb Ambedkar presented the "Those who are opposing the Constitution are against social change and social justice," Siddaramaiah said. to the country, some opposed it, and even now, cries of changing and abolishing the Constitution are heard here and there.

"But those who understand that this is not an easy task are trying to weaken it slowly. This is a conspiracy that is slowly poisoning. We should be wary of this conspiracy to make the Constitution irrelevant by taking away the autonomy of constitutional institutions," Siddaramaiah further said.

"If we protect the Constitution, the Constitution will protect us, and the country will remain secure. In this context, we all need to take a pledge to protect the Constitution today, on Republic Day," he added.

Noting that if India is to grow as a nation and come out of social conflicts, it is necessary to break the ancient hierarchical systems of this society and restructure it, the CM said that the basic idea of our Constitution is to build a civil society that asserts that the status of a citizen should be determined by his essence and achievements, and not by his birth or ancient social origins.

He said that, while dedicating the Constitution to the country, Ambedkar had emphasised two important responsibilities for those who would rule the country in the future: the first is to protect political democracy in this country, thereby safeguarding the country's sovereignty, and the second is to achieve economic democracy.

"The country will truly become more robust through economic democracy. To achieve this, in this country, which is divided into thousands of castes and discriminations of superior and inferior, we need to establish economic equality through social justice and strengthen the country internally. We should not be satisfied with just political democracy, but we should make efforts to make it a social democracy in practice," he added.

Siddaramaiah said the Constitution has been guiding all the thoughts and plans of his government. "I, our party and the government are committed to every letter in it."

It is the constitutional duty of the elected government to eliminate poverty, illness, illiteracy and malnutrition of the people of the state and build a hunger-free, illness-free, illiteracy-free and fear-free society. "Poverty is not a crime. We should not forget that it is the result of unequal distribution of wealth and opportunities," he further said.

"I strongly believe that only when our wealth and opportunities are equally distributed, we can build a prosperous, strong and dynamic society," he said.

Noting that the Directive Principles of State Policy under Article 47 of the Constitution states that it is the primary duty of the government to improve the nutrition and standard of living of the people and to promote health, the CM said his government has implemented five "guarantee schemes" as its fundamental duty.

"Our guarantee schemes, which were formed under the concept of Universal Basic Income, have today provided food security to the people of the state through the Annabhagya scheme and energy security through the Gruha Jyothi scheme. The Gruha Lakshmi scheme has provided Rs 2,000 per month to the women heads of economically backward families of this state, thus ensuring their minimum needs," he said.

Similarly, the Shakti scheme has made women self-reliant by providing free travel on state-run buses, and the Yuvanidhi scheme has given an unemployment allowance to unemployed graduates, giving them mental strength and enabling them to get training for better job opportunities, he said.

The CM said, today, every economically backward family in Karnataka is saving Rs 5,000-Rs 6,000 per month due to the government's guarantee schemes, which is saving Rs 60,000 to Rs 70,000 per year for these families.

Similarly, middle and upper middle class families are also saving Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 per year due to guarantee schemes like Gruha Jyothi, Shakti, Yuvanidhi, he said, adding that they are using this money for their children's education, health, and future savings. "The effect of guarantee schemes has created a sense of security in society today."