- Thursday, February 27, 2025
September 15 is observed as the ‘International Day of Democracy’ after being established through a resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE government of the southern Indian state of Karnataka on Friday (15) held a mega event of reading the preamble to the Indian Constitution as part of celebrations for the ‘International Day of Democracy’ with millions of people participating from the country as well as abroad.
September 15 is observed as the ‘International Day of Democracy’ after being established through a resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007.
Bengaluru: While addressing the launch program for global reading of the Preamble of the Constitution, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah says,"…All the nations of the world have accepted democracy…There was democracy even during Gautam Buddha…Democracy was in India even before the… pic.twitter.com/1fUOlLS83E
— ANI (@ANI) September 15, 2023
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah led the celebrations along with his deputy D K Shivakumar and several other guests, by reading the preamble from the grand steps of ‘Vidhana Soudha’ (the state assembly building) in capital Bengaluru with a large number of children and others in front of them joining in unison.
Addressing the gathering, Siddaramaiah said the Indian National Congress government has fulfilled four of the five ‘guarantees’ (pre-poll promises) and “walked the talk”.
“Protection of the Constitution is the duty of every citizen”, the chief minister said.
The Congress returned to power in Karnataka in May this year, humbling the Bharatiya Janata Party of prime minister Narendra Modi, which was in power for four years.
Karnataka social welfare minister H C Mahadevappa had said on Wednesday (13) that nearly 2.28 crore (22.8 million) people from all walks of life within the country and abroad, have registered to read the Constitution’s preamble.
“From within the country and abroad, 2,27,81,894 people have made online registration. We had expected 5 or 10 lakh people to register, but this has become a movement,” he had said.
Those from corporate, private, government and banking sectors, people from industries and NRIs from several countries have come forward to participate, and have registered, he added.
“The intention is to make people, especially the youth understand the idea of the democracy and the Constitution, and thereby they know the main purpose of the preamble, to lead a life with dignity, freedom and equality,” Mahadevappa said.
The social welfare department had said that anyone who wants to read the Constitution on the same day (September 15) and at the same time of the main event, and get a participation certificate issued by the Government of Karnataka, needs to register.
On September 15, they can upload a video or picture of them reading the preamble, upon which they will be approved to download participation certificates from the same website, it said.
(With PTI inputs)
