Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday announced it would make reading the Preamble of the Constitution mandatory in schools in the state with a view to generating awareness on it among the students.

The state education department has directed all the district education officers (DEOs) to ensure that the Preamble of Constitution is read in schools after prayers by students every Saturday.

“We have ordered that Preamble of Constitution be read in schools to make students aware of it to ensure that the Constitution is not tampered with in the future,” state law minister P.C. Sharma told reporters here on Thursday.

Madhya Pradesh is the second state after Maharashtra to enforce the rule.

The Maharashtra government has earlier ordered that Preamble of Constitution is read in all the schools in the state before the classes began from January 26.

The move was aimed at making everyone understand the basic principles of the inclusiveness, justice, equality, liberty and brotherhood, a statement issued by Maharashtra government has said.

Opposition BJP here however described the Kamal Nath government’s decision to make reading the Preamble in schools as political in nature and cautioned the ruling Congress that the move would boomerang on it.

“Those who live in glass house should not throw stone at others,” former minister and senior BJP leader Narottam Mishra said while reacting to the order by the state
government.

“The state Congress government is trying to politicise school education to gain political mileage,” a senior BJP leader here said.

“The move will ultimately boomerang on Cong-ress. What will be the replies of the principals of the schools when their students will ask them how many times the Constit-ution has been changed and when the word ‘secular’ was added in the Preamble of the Const-itution?” BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal said.