Kerala CM accuses Sangh Parivar of treating minorities as 'enemies', BJP hits back
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has accused the Sangh Parivar of treating Muslims and Christians as 'enemies of the nation' and urged everyone to unite against such divisive actions, drawing sharp criticism from the BJP.
Vijayan said the Constitution, which was the best weapon to fight against caste discrimination and religious hatred, was presently under attack.
The CM alleged the Sangh Parivar and the RSS have made it clear that their aim was to turn India into a 'Hindu rashtra'.
He also accused the party in power at the Centre of being followers of a political group which did not take part in the freedom struggle.
"They are attacking the very roots of our country, its democracy and the Constitution," he said while speaking after inaugurating the Constitution Protection Conference and Secular Meet here on Thursday.
In his speech, Vijayan said that if the Constitution was destroyed, everything -- from an individual's dignity to the sovereignty of the country -- would be lost, he said.
Meanwhile, the BJP hit back, saying the CM has no moral right to utter a single word on the Constitution.
BJP state president K Surendran alleged that Vijayan does not give any importance to the Constitution and accused him of 'whitewashing' extremist and terror groups.
The Kerala CM also alleged that besides the attacks on the Constitution, there were also attempts to rewrite history.
Examples of the same that he mentioned were -- the terming of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination as a 'death' and the claims from certain quarters that B R Ambedkar was not one of the drafters of the Constitution.
Apart from that, in some parts of the country Muslims are being termed as the opposite of Hindu, he claimed.
Vijayan claimed that not only religious minorities, but Dalits and tribals were also under threat and were being attacked and exploited in various parts of the country.
The Constitution was one of the best weapons to fight against caste discrimination and religious hatred and therefore, it should be protected against the attacks on it and values upheld by it.
He further alleged the Constitution was under threat from those duty-bound to protect it. Those who take oath on the Constitution were airing dangerous views that were contrary to it.
Vijayan said even persons in the highest Constitutional positions were making statements that could derail Constitutional principles.
One example of the same, according to Vijayan, was the Indian Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar's recent statement which in effect meant that the Supreme Court decision of 1973, upholding the 'basic structure doctrine', was not correct and that the Parliament was sovereign and Judiciary will not be allowed to encroach upon it.
"It is the country which is sovereign and the Constitution ensures it," he said.
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SC restrains Karnataka from declaring results of half-yearly exams of classes 8 to 10
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Karnataka government for "harassing" students by conducting board exams for different classes, and restrained it from declaring results of board examinations of classes 8, 9 and 10 till further orders.
A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma directed that if the exam has not been conducted in any district, then it shall not be taken.
"Why are you harassing the students? You are the state. You should not behave like this. Don't make it an ego issue. If you are really concerned about the welfare of students, then please open good schools. Don't throttle them,” the bench told senior advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing for the Karnataka government.
The bench said no other state follows this model of education which is being followed by the Karnataka government.
Kamat said that the state government has withdrawn a circular for conducting board examinations for students of classes 5, 8, 9 and 10 in the current academic year in seven rural districts of the state.
The top court was informed that examination was conducted in 24 other districts as well.
It asked the state government to file an affidavit giving the exact details of the examination in four weeks.
The top court was hearing an appeal filed by Organisation for Unaided Recognised Schools against the March 22, judgement of the Karnataka High Court.
The high court's division bench had permitted the state government to conduct the board exams for different classes for the academic year 2023-24, overruling the March 6 order of a single judge's bench.
The single judge of the high court had nullified the state government's decision of October 2023 to hold board exams for different classes through the Karnataka State Examination and Assessment Board (KSEAB).
