Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah delivered a powerful message on Thursday at the 11th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) India Region Conference in Bengaluru. Speaking at Vidhana Soudha, he warned that weaponizing caste, religion, or language for political gains turns legislatures into spaces of exclusion instead of unity.
The conference theme—”Debates and Discussions in the Houses of Legislature: Building People’s Trust and Meeting People’s Aspirations”—hit home for him. “The real enemy of democracy is misusing identity to split society,” Siddaramaiah said. He stressed that true democracy should lift up the weakest and let our differences strengthen India, not tear it apart.
Drawing from history, the CM highlighted India’s deep roots in democratic traditions. He mentioned ancient assemblies from Buddha’s time and village republics where people debated and decided together. In Karnataka, he pointed to the 12th-century Anubhava Mantapa by Basavanna—a people’s parliament where everyone, from workers to thinkers, discussed society, morality, and justice without barriers.
Siddaramaiah urged lawmakers to foster respect, dialogue, and tolerance. “When debates turn hostile and legislatures become battlegrounds of disruption, democracy’s culture starts to fade,” he noted. He quoted B.R. Ambedkar, saying constitutional morality is key—even strong institutions can’t save democracy without it.
Building public trust, he added, comes from listening to diverse voices and building consensus, not forcing agreement. “Democracy faces more danger from internal rot—like replacing debate with dominance or turning legislatures into tools of partisanship—than from outside threats,” the Chief Minister warned.
He praised the CPA as a vital network connecting nations through shared values of parliamentary democracy, rule of law, and human dignity. In today’s world, facing issues like climate change, inequality, and disinformation, the CPA offers a space to share ideas and strengthen governance.
For India, Siddaramaiah said, our parliaments and state legislatures are labs of federal democracy, where diversity sparks debate, dissent gets respect, and unity emerges. As custodians of this system, he called on everyone to protect and nurture it, echoing Ambedkar’s view that democracy is woven into India’s ancient ethos.
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