“There is need for elaborate discussions at State and national level on the values, laws and relations that changed according to the times and also social values of laws,” Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Friday.
He was inaugurating the ‘National Webinar on Socio-legal Values in Mitakshara, Vachana, Dasa and Folk Literature in Karnataka: An Exploration’ organised by Karnataka State Law University under the aegis of Vijnaneshwara Adhyayana Peetha, via video conference on Friday.
Mr. Bommai said that society and law were inseparable and Constitution was the mother of all laws. “This constitution is standing on the pedestal of equality, justice and values. And the foundation of the Constitution was laid by social reformers the country had seen. Karnataka’s contribution in the field of social reforms is rich as we had great reformers like Basavanna, Kanakadasa, Sarvajna and writers like D.V. Gundappa, Kuvempu and many others who strongly condemned the discrimination and advocated the objectives of the Constitution like equality, fraternity and justice,” he said.
The CM referred to the incident of Ambedkar not being allowed to practice law when he returned from abroad and how then Education Minister in Bombay Presidency, Siddappa Kambali (from Hubballi), gave him shelter. During this stay, Ambedkar had the influence of ‘Vachana Literature’ of Basavanna and others, which could be found in the Constitution, he said.
Referring to the Burmese tribals, who have settled in hilly regions and where there were no courts, police stations and hospitals and how the tribals had imbibed the essence of tolerance and fraternity, Mr. Bommai said that despite various degrees of education, the dissent and intolerance had only increased across the globe.
Referring to the Vijnaneshwara Study Chair, which was established by his predecessor B.S. Yediyurappa, the CM said that the study chair should be a reformative one. “The Mitakshara law should be related to the present day and the chair should give suggestions on how to change the present situation through the age-old concepts and how to strengthen the judiciary and make laws more humane,” he said.
