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Updated: Jan 24, 2020 06:57 IST

The Madhya Pradesh government has made the reading of the Preamble to the Constitution in schools mandatory as per an order issued by the education department.

The order issued on Wednesday evening by the department, said, “The Preamble to the Constitution will be read out by the head master/teacher in all the primary and middle schools after prayer on every Saturday. The same will be read out by the students later. Similarly, the principals of high and higher secondary schools will get the same done by the students after Balsabha.”

There are more than 1.20 lakh schools- from primary to higher secondary- in Madhya Pradesh with more than 63 lakh students, as per education department officials.

Earlier, the Maharashtra government made reading of the Preamble to the Constitution mandatory for school students. In fact, in Maharashtra a resolution to the effect was adopted by the government in 2013, but it was not implemented, as per education department officials.

The government’s order, however, has not gone down well with the Opposition BJP in Madhya Pradesh.

State BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said, “Any innovative practice in the schools to enhance the knowledge of students is always welcome. But in Madhya Pradesh the state government has introduced the practice as a political gimmick. On the one hand, the Congress is going ahead with a ‘Save Constitution’ agitation despite the fact it is the Congress which always tried to weaken the Constitution with its anti-democratic decisions and practices whenever it was in power at the Centre and on the other it is now talking of reading of the Preamble on school campuses.”

Agrawal said, “Agitation by the Congress and the education department’s order regarding reading of the Preamble can’t be a coincidence. It’s an attempt to derive political mileage from the same.”

However, minister for school education, Prabhuram Chaudhary, said, “Such a practice in schools will strengthen the feeling of students regarding our Constitution besides arousing interest in them to know more and more about the constitution which is the foundation of the country.”