Why PM Modi spoke about CM Modis' celebration of the Constitution | News from the political pulse

The Samvidhan Sammaan Yatra he spoke about during the debate in Lok Sabha last week therefore marked a beginning.

Surendranagar as a site

The Samvidhan Samman Yatra was held in Surendranagar district of Gujarats Saurashtra region on January 25, 2010, on the eve of Republic Day, to mark 60 years of the Constitution – dating back to January 26, 1950, when India adopted the Constitution and became a country. Republic. Incidentally, the Modi government at the Center has been celebrating November 26 as Constitution Day since 2015, as it was the day the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution.

In 2010, the Gujarat government had chosen Surendranagar as the site of Republic Day celebration, as part of the initiative launched by Modi then to bring governance to the district level by organizing important events in various district headquarters instead of just in the state capital, Gandhinagar.

Surendranagar district, which has the highest concentration of Dalits in the state (around 12%), has historically been a hotspot for atrocities committed against Dalits in Gujarat. After the flogging of Dalit youth in 2016 in Una in Saurashtra, Surendranagar was one of the districts that saw the most widespread protests.

The yatra

According to official documents consulted by The Indian Expressa replica of the Constitution was placed on an ambadi (howdah), a special saddle for an elephant. CM Modi first worshiped the Constitution and then led the procession on foot, accompanied by 60 girls from oppressed communities, each holding a copy of the Constitution in a golden kalash (pot) above their heads.

The procession also included children performing dances, seers and religious leaders, a police band, as well as 60 teachers dressed in the costumes of Dr BR Ambedkar, who headed the drafting committee of the Constitution.

The yatra ended at the Town Hall Tower Chowk in Surendranagar, where Modi addressed a crowd. In his speech, the CM urged the public to dedicate themselves to making India a powerful democracy, and noted that while the rest of the country would celebrate the 61st Republic Day, the act of honoring the Constitution began from Gujarat.

People present

Notable participants in the yatra included then Gujarat Assembly Speaker Ashok Bhatt; then state ministers Anandiben Patel, Nitin Patel, Fakirbhai Vaghela, Amit Shah, Jay Nararyan Vyas, Ramanlal Vora and Kiritsinh Rana; Parshottam Rupala, then BJP Gujarat chief; former minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama; MPs Varshaben Doshi, Shambhuprasad Tundiya and Bharat Khorani; and former MP IK Jadeja.

Recalling the yatra, Rupala, now an MP, said he does not remember Surendranagar being chosen for any specific reason. As CM, Narendrabhai had launched the national celebrations of Republic Day, Independence Day and Gujarat Foundation Day (May 1) at the district level. And this unique yatra gaurav (pride) of the Constitution was carried out on the back of an elephant. We have seen in ancient pictures where Siddharaj Jaysinh (former ruler of Gujarat) led a procession around a book written by Hemchandracharya (Siddhahem Shabdanusasana) placed on the back of an elephant. But here we saw the Constitution on the back of an elephant in a procession, Rupala said.

Then, Education Minister and Surendranangar district in-charge Ramanlal Vora recalled that the procession covered a distance of around 3 km. As far as I remember, after the Siddhahem (Shabdanushasan) procession on the back of an elephant in Patan by Siddharaj Jaysinh, it was the first time in Gujarat and India where a constitutional yatra was performed on the back of an elephant, and this was done by Narendrabhai Modi.

In the following years

A senior BJP leader from Gujarat and former state minister said that after the 2010 Samvidhan Samman Yatra, no major event was organized by the Gujarat government to commemorate the Constitution. However, the leader added, after November 26 was declared Constitution Day by the Center in 2015, the State BJP's Scheduled Caste Morcha took out small processions carrying the Constitution at the district level.

In December 2019, then CM Vijay Rupani presented a proposal in the Gujarat Assembly to express the House's commitment to propagating the values ​​of the Constitution, with the celebration of November 26 as Samvidhan Divas.

Speaking on the proposal, Nitin Patel, then deputy CM, referred to the Samvidhan Samman Yatra 2010 held by CM Modi in Surendranagar. This triggered a protest by the then independent (and now Congress) MP Jignesh Mevani, who spoke about the killing of three Dalit youths in a police firing incident in the city's Surendranagar district from Thangadh, in September 2012. Mevani rushed to the well of the house and was taken away. by the marshals. He was then suspended from the House for the remainder of the session.