Bhubaneswar: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik suggested that the word ‘non-violence’ be incorporated in the preamble of the Indian Constitution.
Patnaik was speaking at the preparatory meeting of 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi celebration, held in the Rastrapati Bhawan under the chairmanship of President of India Ramnath Kovind, at New Delhi on Wednesday,
Stating that that all the words in the preamble are based on foreign democratic thought process, ‘non-violence’ is a word of purely of Indian culture and philosophy, he said incorporation of the world in the preamble would be the greatest tribute of the nation to the champion of ‘non-violence’.
The chief minister said: “Peace is required for development. Those who are trying to polarize the society and the country in the name of religion, caste and class, it is essential to defeat those forces for development.”
Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, Patnaik said that freedom is like dry wood as long as poverty is there. He said poverty and social injustice are the biggest violence. For any government, poverty eradication is the biggest challenge, and without non-violence it can not be achieved, he added.
