As Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seek re-election, a cross section of Indian celebrities and intellectuals has started campaigns in a bid to prevent a repeat of the 2014 elections.
Over 150 scientists issued a statement last week appealing people to “reject those who lynch or assault people, those who discriminate against people because of religion, caste, gender, language or region”.
Although circumspect about directly naming either Modi or the BJP, their messaging left little room for confusion. “An atmosphere in which scientists, activists and rationalists are hounded, harassed, intimidated, censored, jailed, or worse, murdered, is not the future the country deserves. It is not the future we want to give our youth,” a public statement by leading members of India’s research community read.
The signatories, whose number has reached 220 now, say that “we cannot endorse a politics that divides us, creates fears, and marginalises a large fraction of our society – women, Dalits [communities facing discrimination due to their so-called low castes], Adivasis [indigenous people], religious minorities, the persons with disabilities or the poor”.
“Diversity is our democracy’s greatest strength; discrimination and non-inclusivity strike at its very foundation,” they said.
The scientists said they want the Indian youth to awaken to a country that sees science as a means of democratic empowerment through sceptical, open-minded questioning, rather than just a commercial enterprise.
“Many of the developments over the years have really not been conducive to cultivate a scientific temper and, more recently, one might even say that it is difficult to cultivate a scientific temper,” Amitabh Joshi, an evolutionary biologist and professor at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, told Al Jazeera.
He said the decision to not specifically name a party was deliberate and the only thing the scientists wanted was for people to vote “rationally”.
The move was soon followed by many celebrities from the film and theatre world. Over 800 artistes issued a statement on artistuniteindia.com and appealed the Indian people to vote out “divisive politics”.
