Dissent

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In recent times, the right to speech, expression and the right to protest have been constantly undermined. An attack on these rights runs contrary to the spirit of civilised democracy. We need to exercise these rights within the Constitution’s conditions and the government is duty-bound to provide these conditions.

The ideology central to the Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has no space or use for liberal thought and values. Education for such organisations means only what can be called a kind of catechism. This is a memorisation of a narrow set of questions rooted in faith and belief and an equally narrow set of answers that prohibit any doubt or deviation. Therefore, educational centres that allow questioning and discussion are anathema and have to be dismantled.

The abandonment of reason appears to be part of the nation's drive towards 'modernisation'. All dissent is dismissed as 'anti-national' or 'pseudo-secular'. Democracy is not to be governed any more by the scientific temper that provides work for the idle and food for the hungry but by the technology that puts missiles into orbit and resources into export.