Over 200 writers today issued an appeal to citizens to “vote out hate politics” from the country.
Authors Amitav Ghosh, Jeet Thayil, Amit Chaudhuri, Arundhati Roy, Girish Karnad, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Anita Nair, Orijit Sen, Nayantara Sahgal, Urvashi Butalia, Namita Gokhale, Devdan Chaudhuri, TM Krishna, Mrinal Pande, Kunal Basu, Romila Thapar, Jerry Pinto, Harsh Mander, Hansda Sowvendra Sekhar, Arunava Sinha among others, issued a statement on Monday appealing to people to “vote out the division of our people; vote out inequality; vote against violence, intimidation and censorship.”
They said that this is the only way “we can vote for an India that renews the promises made by our Constitution. This is why we appeal to all citizens to vote for a diverse and equal India”. There are 210 signatories in the list of writers.
The statement says that “in the last few years, we have seen citizens being lynched or assaulted or discriminated against because of their community, caste, gender, or the region they come from.” It says that “Hate politics has been used to divide the country; create fear; and exclude more and more people from living as full-fledged citizens.”
The writers have come together to say that they want this to change. “We don’t want rationalists, writers and activists to be hounded or assassinated. We want stern measures against violence in word or deed against women, dalits, adivasis and minority communities,” the statement reads, adding that they want to safeguard diversity and to let democracy flourish.
How do we do this? The writers ask. “How do we bring about the change we need so urgently? There are many things we need to do and can do. But there is a critical first step,” they said in the statement. In the first step – the one that can be taken soon – is to vote out hate politics, they said.
On March 29, over 100 filmmakers issued a statement urging people to vote BJP out of power. The elections are scheduled from April 11 to May 19 in seven phases – with results to be announced on May 23.
Among others, the statement has been signed by documentary filmmakers Anand Patwardhan, Anjali Monteiro, film festival director Bina Paul, Tamil film director Vetrimaaran, Malayalam film director and producer Aashiq Abu, film critic CS Venkateswaran. There are 103 signatories in the list.
The statement said that people should vote for a government that “respects the Constitution of India, protects our freedom of speech and expression, and refrains from all kinds of censorship.”
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