Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday urged the people of the State to mark the 73rd Independence Day by rededicating themselves to distress relief in the flood-hit regions and the reconstruction that must follow.
The State could not afford to weaken in the face of disaster. It had to move forward by overcoming all hurdles, he said, delivering the Independence Day message at the Central Stadium here.
“It is not just for us, but also for the generations that are to follow. It is this realisation that makes the Independence Day more relevant and important,” the Chief Minister said.
“Last year, we undertook relief activities with a unity that garnered the attention of the whole world. We showed the world that unity over and above divisions can create wonders. The effort was successful and proved to us that nothing is impossible,’’ Mr. Vijayan said.
Each Independence Day bore the message of the need to protect the values enshrined in the Constitution as we would our own eyes. It was also an occasion to introspect on our progress in the fulfillment of these values, he said.
Federal spirit
Attempts to replace the federal spirit — the very lifeblood of the Constitution — and diversity with a unitary system could be seen only as a violation of the Constitutional principles. “Encroachment upon the powers and rights of States also goes against the grain of the Constitution and federal principles,” he said.
We should ask ourselves whether we were moving towards or away from socialist and democratic values when PSUs were destroyed, when wealth got accumulated in the hands of a few and a situation was created where leaders of democratic parties were placed under house arrest, he said.
Secularism weakened when there was religious discrimination, when citizens were set apart or viewed with suspicion or denied equal opportunity, he said.
Kerala could show with pride to the whole country the example set by the mosque authorities in Pothukal, Malappuram, who allowed autopsies of landslip-victims to be held in the place of worship, the Chief Minister said.
