Here is the full text of a statement issued by over 200 writers as an appeal to citizens to vote against hate politics.
The upcoming election finds our country at the crossroads. Our Constitution guarantees all its citizens equal rights, the freedom to eat, pray and live as they choose, freedom of expression and the right to dissent. But 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. Hate politics has been used to divide the country; create fear; and exclude more and more people from living as full-fledged citizens. Writers, artists, filmmakers, musicians and other cultural practitioners have been hounded, intimidated, and censored. Anyone who questions the powers-that-be is in danger of being harassed or arrested on false and ridiculous charges.
All of us 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. We want resources and measures for jobs, education, research, healthcare and equal opportunities for all. Most of all, we want to safeguard our diversity and let democracy flourish.
How do we do this? 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.
The first step, the one we can take soon, is to vote out hate politics. Vote out the division of our people; vote out inequality; vote against violence, intimidation and censorship. 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.
AJ Thomas |
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AR Venkatachalapathy |
Abhay Maurya |
Adil Jussawalla |
Ajai Singh |
Akeel Bilgrami |
Ali Javid |
Alok Rai |
Amit Chaudhuri |
Amit Bhaduri |
Amitav Ghosh |
Anand |
Anand Teltumbde |
Ananya Vajpeyi |
Ania Loomba |
Anil Joshi |
Anita Nair |
Anita Ratnam |
Anita Thampi |
Anjali Purohit |
Anupama HS |
Anuradha Kapur |
Anuradha Marwah |
Anvar Ali |
Apoorvanand |
Arjumand Ara |
Arjun Dangle |
Arun Kamal |
Arunava Sinha |
Arundhati Roy |
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra |
Asad Zaidi |
Asghar Wajahat |
Ashok Vajpeyi |
Ashokan Charuvil |
Ashwani Kumar |
Atamjit Singh |
B Rajeevan |
Badri Raina |
Bajrang Bihari Tiwari |
Bali Singh |
Bama |
Basharat Peer |
Benyamin |
Bhasha Singh |
Bina Sarkar Ellias |
CS Chandrika |
Chaman Lal |
Chandradasan |
Chandrakant Patil |
Civic Chandran |
Dalip Kaur Tiwana |
Damodar Mauzo |
Datta Damodar Naik |
Deepan Sivaraman |
Devdan Chaudhuri |
Devendra Chaube |
Devi Prasad Mishra |
Dinesh Kumar Shukla |
E Santhoshkumar |
EV Ramakrishnan |
GN Devy |
Gagan Gill |
Gauhar Raza |
Geeta Kapur |
Geetanjali Shree |
Girdhar Rathi |
Girish Karnad |
Githa Hariharan |
Govind Prasad |
Gulam Mohammed Sheikh |
HS Shivaprakash |
Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar |
Hariyash Rai |
Harsh Mander |
Hemant Divate |
Hemlata Maheshwar |
Hiralal Rajasthani |
Huchangi Prasad |
Ishrat Syed |
J Devika |
JM Parakh |
Jaidev Taneja |
Jaishree Misra |
Jeet Thayil |
Jerry Pinto |
Joy Mathew |
JV Pawar |
K G Shankara Pillai |
K N Panikkar |
K Satchidanandan |
Kalpana Swaminarayan |
Kalpana Swaminathan |
Kavery Nambisan |
Keki Daruwalla |
Kiran Nagarkar |
KM Shrimali |
KP Ramanunni |
Kunal Basu |
Kutti Revathi |
M Mukundan |
MMP Singh |
Madhu Bhaduri |
Makarand Sathe |
Malavika Kapur |
Mamang Dai |
Mamta Sagar |
Manash Bhattacharya |
Manasi |
Mangad Ratnakaran |
Mangalesh Dabral |
Manishi Jani |
Manmohan |
Manoj Kulkarni |
Manoj Kuroor |
Maria Couto |
Meena Kandasamy |
Megha Pansare |
Mogalli Ganesh |
Mrinal Pande |
Mukul Kesavan |
NS Madhavan |
NP Hafiz Mohamad |
Nabaneeta Dev Sen |
Nalin Ranjan Singh |
Namita Gokhale |
Namita Singh |
Nancy Adajania |
Nayantara Sahgal |
Neeraj Singh |
Nityanand Tiwari |
Noor Zaheer |
Orijit Sen |
P Sivakami |
PN Gopikrishnan |
PP Ramachandran |
Pankaj Bisht |
Paul Zacharia |
Prabha Varma |
Prabodh Parikh |
Pradnya Daya Pawar |
Prem Tiwari |
Priya Sarukkai Chabria |
Purushottam Agarwal |
R Unni |
Rahamath Tarikere |
Rahman Abbas |
Rajendra Chenni |
Rajendra Rajan |
Rajesh Joshi |
Rajiv Ranjan Singh |
Ramprakash Tripathi |
Ranjit Hoskote |
Raosaheb Kasbe |
Rakesh Tiwari |
Ravishankar |
Rekha Awasthi |
Ritu Menon |
Robin Ngangom |
Romila Thapar |
Ruchira Gupta |
Rukmini Bhaya Nair |
S Joseph |
Sachin Ketkar |
Saleem Peeradina |
Salim Yusufji |
Salma |
Samik Bandyopadhyay |
Sanjeev Kaushal |
Sanjeev Khandekar |
Sanjeev Kumar |
Sarabjeet Garcha |
Satish Alekar |
Savitri Rajeevan |
Sethu |
Shafi Shauq |
Shailesh Singh |
Shanta Acharya |
Shanta Gokhale |
Sharankumar Limbale |
Sharmila Samant |
Shashi Deshpande |
Shekhar Joshi |
Shobha Singh |
Shubha |
Smita Sahay |
Srilata K |
Subodh Sarkar |
Sudeep Chakravarti |
Sudeshna Banerjee |
Sudhanva Deshpande |
Sudhir Chandra |
Suresh Chabria |
TM Krishna |
Tekchand |
Udayan Vajpeyi |
Urvashi Butalia |
Vaasanthi |
Vanamala Viswanatha |
Vijay Prashad |
Venita Coelho |
Vijayalakshmi |
Vinita Agrawal |
Vinitabh |
Vishnu Nagar |
Vishwanath Tripathi |
Vivan Sundaram |
Vivek Shanbhag |
Volga |
Zoya Hasan |