Honorable Member of Parliament, Muzaffar Hussain Baigh, today exhorted upon the youth to work tirelessly and in unison for making India in general and the State of Jammu and Kashmir in particular a just, secular and libertarian place.“Let us pray and pledge to make the air in India, particularly, Jammu and Kashmir full of liberty, secularism and justice,” Baigh said while addressing the students and faculty members during a seminar on “The Preamble of the Constitution,” organized by the Department of Law, Central University of Kashmir (CUK), to celebrate the Constitution Day, in commemoration of the 125th birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna, Dr. B R Ambedkar, which falls on November 26.Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Mehraj ud Din Mir, noted lawyer and legal luminary, Zaffar Ahmad Shah, Head Department of Law, Dr. Sheikh Showkat, Registrar, Prof. Muhammad Afzal Zargar, Controller of Examinations, Dr. Nazir Ahmad Gilkar, Deans of various Schools, Heads and Coordinators of different department, faculty members and students were also present on the occasion. Baigh said that despite diversity on account of religion, culture and languages, India as a country was still together. He said that there was no problem with the Constitution of India, but some necessary amendments were needed at present.
He said the relationship between the Jammu and Kashmir and the Union of India was dependent on which way the youth, from both sides will pursue it. “The Jammu and Kashmir and India will be what youngsters will make it,” Baigh said.Baigh said the 42nd Amendment made in the Constitution of India was never extended to the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Baigh said the Muslims across the world are being branded as “terrorists and fundamentalists” and they should take recourse and find out as to why they are being demonized.Senior lawyer and legal luminary, Zaffar Ahmad Shah said that every country needs a Constitution to establish a system for running the government and various other institutions, adding that preamble was an important part of the Constitution and the society shall achieve what is mentioned in the preamble. He described preamble as the beacon of light and said that it imbibes important societal requirements.
Shah however, regretted that the society in India has not been able to achieve the establishments of ideals, hopes and aspirations, as enshrined in the preamble. “The Jammu and Kashmir has a peculiar position. It has its own Constitution with a different preamble and at the same time the preamble of the Constitution of India also applies to the State. In this Constitutional arrangement, the people of State are at disadvantageous position as successive governments have failed to achieve either of the two,” Zaffar Shah said. He regretted that governments have failed to live to the commitments made in the Constitutions. Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Mehraj ud Din Mir while presiding over the also deliberated on the theme and thanked the legal luminaries for being part of the deliberations during the seminar. Prof. Mehraj ud Din Mir gave a detailed account about the establishment of the varsity and its functioning. He said the work on the Pre Engineered Buildings at Ganderbal campus was going on and the academic activities would be shifted to the permanent campus very soon. CUK V-C said the University was contemplating to start new courses from the next academic session.
Registrar, Prof. M Afzal Zargar, while welcoming the guests said the task of holding the event as demanded by the current requirements following MHRD directive to celebrate the day, was assigned to the Department of Law. He emphasized that the day celebrated earlier as Law day was meant to spread importance of Constitution and spread thoughts and ideas of Dr B R Ambedkar. He dwelt upon how constituent assembly of India adopted the constitution on November 26, 1949 which came into the effect on January 26, 1950. Elaborating that Constitution promises governance through rule of law, Prof. Zargar mentioned about how trough amendments, rule specific laws were systematically substituted by right specific laws.Head Department of Law, Dr. Sheikh Showkat said the credit for drafting the preamble of the Constitution does not exclusively go to the Constituent Assembly rather it has evolved out of a discourse that preceded 50 years before drafting of the Constitution in which Dr. B R Ambedkar, Motilal Nehru and M A Jinnah were important actors. “Whatever we have in the form of the preamble was again recast in seventies of previous century once words socialist and secular were inducted in to the constitution through 42nd Amendment, Nations create states and constitutions to pursue their collective goals,” he said. (KNS)