Over 200 writers today issued an appeal to citizens to \u201cvote out hate politics\u201d from the country.<\/p>\n
Authors Amitav Ghosh, Jeet Thayil, Amit Chaudhuri, Arundhati Roy, Girish Karnad, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Anita Nair, Orijit Sen, Nayantara Sahgal, Urvashi Butalia, Namita Gokhale,\u00a0Devdan Chaudhuri, TM Krishna, Mrinal Pande, Kunal Basu, Romila Thapar, Jerry Pinto, Harsh Mander, Hansda Sowvendra Sekhar,\u00a0Arunava Sinha among others, issued a statement on Monday appealing to people to \u201cvote out the division of our people; vote out inequality; vote against violence, intimidation and censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n
They said that this is the only way \u201cwe can vote for an India that renews the promises made by our Constitution.\u00a0This is why we appeal to all citizens to vote for a diverse and equal India\u201d. There are 210 signatories in the list of writers.<\/p>\n
The statement says that \u201cin 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.\u201d It says that \u201cHate politics has been used to divide the country; create fear; and exclude more and more people from living as full-fledged citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n
The writers have come together to say that they want this to change. \u201cWe don\u2019t 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,\u201d the statement reads, adding that they want to safeguard diversity and to let democracy flourish.<\/p>\n
How do we do this? The writers ask. \u201cHow 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,\u201d they said in the statement. In the first step \u2013 the one that can be taken soon \u2013 is to vote out hate politics, they said.<\/p>\n