India celebrates Constitution Day with Preamble recitation, Murmu lauds progress

President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday led MPs in the reading of the Preamble as the country marked the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Indian Constitution on November 26, 1949.

Murmu read the Preamble in Hindi and all others -- Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, leaders of the two houses of Parliament; Leaders of Opposition in both Houses and MPs -- gathered in the Central Hall of the Old Parliament Building repeated after her.

Earlier, in her address on the occasion, Murmu called the Constitution a living, progressive document, which had served the goals of social justice and inclusive development well.

Launching the year-long celebrations of the adoption of the Constitution, Murmu also hailed the contributions of experts who advised the Constituent Assembly, especially advisor to the assembly BN Rao, as well as 15 women members of the assembly.

"Our Constitution is a living and progressive document. Through our Constitution, we have achieved the goals of social justice and inclusive development," Murmu said, lauding landmark reforms in the country since the Constitution was adopted including women's reservation law and Goods and Services Tax reforms.

Murmu, also, said three organs of the Constitution -- legislature, executive and judiciary -- had the principal task of easing the lives of common people and counted several initiatives taken in the last 10 years to achieve ease of living.

The President, earlier, released important publications on the occasion -- copies of the Constitution in Sanskrit and Maithili; "Bharat ke Samvidhan ka nirman, ek jhalak" and  Bharat ke Samvidhan ka nirman aur iski gauravshali gatha". The second two publications are available in Hindi and English. Murmu, also, unveiled a book dedicated to the art and calligraphy of the Constitution.