Filmmakers, Writers Including Arundhati Roy, Girish Karnad Appeal Against Hate Politics!

With the first phase of voting about to start for the 2019 general elections, more than 200 writers and filmmakers have signed an appeal against hate politics saying “Let us vote against hate politics. Let us vote for an equal and diverse India". The list of the eminent writers includes Amitav Ghosh, Romila Thapar, Arundhati Roy, Jerry Pinto, Keki Daruwalla, Harsh Mander, Ranjit Hoskote, R. Unni, Anand Teltumbde, Zoya Hasan and Girish Karnad. They include those writing in Hindi, English, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bangla, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu, Kashmiri and Konkani.

The statement released by email on Monday by K. Satchidanandan and Githa Hariharan on behalf of the Indian Writers’ Forum, read: "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,adivasisand 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 writers say that it is important to "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."

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This comes just a few days after around almost 100 filmmakers issued a letter, wherein they asked individuals to vote the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of power. The filmmakers who signed the appeal include Anand Patwardhan, Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, Sudevan, Q, Deepa Dhanraj and Gurvinder Singh.

The filmmakers said that "ever since the BJP came to power, things have changed only for the worse. The statement also said that giving the BJP another term will be a grave blunder”.

This is an inspiring action that some very eminent filmmakers have taken but why is Bollywood quite? Where is B-Town which likes to be extremely active on social media otherwise?

What is interesting is that the Hindi film fraternity has been campaigningfor the government in power wherein PM Narendra Modi, on March 12, Tuesday, Prime Minister Modi tweeted 29 times in an hour, urging famous Bollywood personalities to influence their fans to vote in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

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Powerful and timely conversations can bring about change and this was one of what we hope will become a regular conversation. Meeting the Honorable Prime Minister @narendramodi today was an incredible opportunity. As a community, there is a huge interest to contribute to nation building. There is so much that we want to do. And can do and this dialogue was towards how and what ways we can do that. When the youngest country (in demography) joins hands with the largest movie industry in the world, we hope to be a force to reckon with. Together we would love to inspire and ignite positive changes to a transformative India. The film industry would also like to send a huge thanks for the GST reduction in movie ticket prices that was implemented recently! Thank you so much for your time, Sir!

A post shared by Karan Johar (@karanjohar) onJan 10, 2019 at 4:24am PST

It was shocking that our PM had to take such an action, knowing that Bollywood is a huge influence on the masses, but it is a matter of a huge debate what is good and what is bad. Well, this epic photograph where some very prominent actors took a selfie with the PM, says a lot. Doesn't it?

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