Writer and cultural activist Ganesh Devy said on Monday that the government at the Centre is determined to wipe out all opposition. Mr. Devy was speaking at the centenary memorial lecture of advocate Pandurang Mulgaonkar.
Mr. Devy, president of Dakshinaayan Abhiyan, a movement that aims to forge solidarity between all progressive forces, said: “In the current political environment, political parties are not able to fulfill their traditional function of absorbing the discontent of the people and conveying it to the government.” He said the Centre had also not spared members of the civil society.
Mr. Devy claimed that the media had also refused to play its traditional role of conveying the anxieties of people to the powers that be. “Today, the media appears to be speaking what the government wants it to speak. It is as if the people do not exist. The media stands as the wall between the government and people.” Mr. Devy added, “The electronic media has started barking, shouting and scolding us rather than speaking to us.”
Mr. Devy claimed there was a deliberate breakdown of institutions in the country. “Whether they are commissions, statutory organisations, institutions or academics, all of them are being completely disabled and made dysfunctional.”
‘Attack on intellect’
Mr. Devy also said that there was an attack being carried out on intellect. “This attack on intellect is visible in universities. Conductors of intellect such as books and individuals who seem to play the traditional role of thinkers and writers who question the shape of things are being attacked.”
He said the times when freedom of expression is threatened was “neither the end of the world nor this was the post-truth era”.