Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said the Kerala government will take steps to make reading of the preamble to the Constitution a part of school and college morning assembly.
The decision has come as a response to the demand by college union leaders to ensure that constitution studies are made an inevitable part of the curriculum at a time when the constitution and its values are under attack, he said.
“To create social awareness regarding the importance of protecting the constitution, the state government will take necessary steps to ensure that preamble of the constitution is read out during school college assembly,” Vijayan said at the ‘Chief Minister’s student leaders’ conclave here.
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He also said 50 per cent reservation for women representatives in college union elections was also under consideration. Sex education will be made part of the education curriculum, Vijayan said.
“The state is also planning to keep open University libraries 24/7 for students without any restriction for girls,” he added.
On Monday, Pinarayi had condemned the violence at JNU in New Delhi and said the “Nazi-style attacks” on students and teachers inside the campus was an attempt to create unrest and violence in the country.
Vijayan said the attack on students is an “appalling display of intolerance running amok” and asked the Sangh Parivar forces to end its “diabolical plan” to silence the universities with bloodshed.
“Those who attempted the Nazi-style onslaught on students and teachers of JNU was trying to create unrest and violence in the country... The attackers assumed the character of a terrorist group and reached the campus with deadly weapons,” Vijayan said in a Facebook post.
He said the news report that the ABVP activists attempted to stop the ambulance carrying the injured students union president, showed the extent of their plan to create a riot.
“Sangh Parivar must end this diabolical plan to silence the universities with bloodshed. Remember, those students are speaking for all,” he added.
The Malayalam Film industry also condemned the attack on students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), saying it was a “criminal offence” and deserves the harshest punishment.
In a Facebook post, actor Prithviraj Sukumaran said entering an institution of knowledge and education and unleashing violence on students with scant regard for law and order, was an absolute murder of all democratic values.
“Regardless of what ideology you stand for, what cause you’re fighting for, what end to this means you might be hoping for, violence and vandalism is not and never will be the answer to anything.”
“For a nation that won its independence from colonialism through a non-violence, non-cooperation movement, it’s truly deplorable that today the word ‘revolution’ is automatically equated to a call for violence and lawlessness,” he wrote.
Actor Manju Warrier expressed shock over the visuals of bleeding faces of students on television.
“Though their ideologies may differ, the violence witnessed in the institution, wherein even outsiders had entered the campus and attacked the students, cannot be justified, she said. “We cannot keep mum. We need to stand with them”, the actor wrote on Facebook.
Actor Tovino Thomas said, “When the students of a premier university get attacked by cowards without faces and the system fails to stand firm against this, something is seriously and gravely wrong in this country!”.
“Whatever be your political affiliation, if you are still believing that everything is normal here, you are terribly mistaken ! Unless and until those cowards are caught and punished for what they did to our students, this nation is not going to sleep!”
Actor Nivin Pauly described the attack on students as “horrifying and frightening”.
Actor-turned director Geetu Mohandas wrote, “What the hell is going on! What next? A war against children?”