Social discrimination still prevails, says TN Guv

Chennai, Nov 25 (PTI) Promises made to the people in the Constitution still remained a distant dream due to the prevailing social discrimination including untouchability, Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi said on Saturday and called for a social audit to check the extent it has fulfilled the promises.

Also, he said courts were not the only place where jurisprudence should evolve but there has to be a participatory process from the citizens.

'The promise made to the citizens will remain a distinct dream as social discrimination and untouchability is prevailing in our society. We have to think and work on it. We can’t afford to have a country which is getting dissected; justice, liberty and equality remain a distant dream and fraternity a receding past,' he said.

Speaking at the inaugural of the one-day consortium on 'Constitution Day' held at The Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University, Perungudi, here, the Governor said the Constitution should not be reduced as a mere legal document or the prerogative only of the legal people.

'It is time to have a social audit to check, to what extent it has fulfilled the promises of the people and why not,' Ravi, who is the Chancellor of the varsity said.

He highlighted how the society, after independence started fragmenting on various lines, such as caste and post-independence, the assertion of certain rights of exclusivity among the people. 'It created a sense of insecurity. As a result, demand for a separate state and homeland started. North-East exemplifies it. Where did that 'Fraternity' (mentioned in the Preamble of our Constitution) go?' he asked.

Linguistic chauvinism led to states getting constituted on linguistic lines and this resulted in the formation of linguistic minorities, he said.

'Even in our state around 30 per cent are linguistic minorities and they have to fight to teach their mother tongue in schools run by them. Because of this social fission, new and new identities, and castes started emerging. We are a unique society, having homogeneity in heterogeneity (unity in diversity) but the diversity became assertive and we started endless social fission,' the Governor said.

Vice-Chancellor, TNDALU, N S Santhosh Kumar, Registrar Gowri Ramesh, Head Department of Constitutional Law and Human Rights R Srinivasan, and Chairman, Constitution Day Celebrations A Vijayalakshmi, were among those who spoke. PTI JSP KH