WRITERS TO CITIZENS:VOTE OUT HATE POLITICS!

“A Truly living human being cannot remain neutral”

    –Nadine Gordimer

T

he 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.

 

1	AJ Thomas	81	J Devika	161	Ruchira Gupta
2	AR Venkatachalapathy	82	JM Parakh	162	Rukmini Bhaya Nair
3	Abhay Maurya	83	Jaidev Taneja	163	S Joseph
4	Adil Jussawalla	84	Jaishree Misra	164	Sachin Ketkar
5	Ajai Singh	85	Jeet Thayil	165	Saleem Peeradina
6	Akeel Bilgrami	86	Jerry Pinto	166	Salim Yusufji
7	Ali Javid	87	Joy Mathew	167	Salma
8	Alok Rai	88	JV Pawar	168	Samik Bandyopadhyay
9	Amit Chaudhuri	89	K G Shankara Pillai	169	Sanjeev Kaushal
10	Amit Bhaduri	90	K N Panikkar	170	Sanjeev Khandekar
11	Amitav Ghosh	91	K Satchidanandan	171	Sanjeev Kumar
12	Anand	92	Kalpana Swaminarayan	172	Sarabjeet Garcha
13	Anand Teltumbde	93	Kalpana Swaminathan	173	Satish Alekar
14	Ananya Vajpeyi	94	Kavery Nambisan	174	Savitri Rajeevan
15	Ania Loomba	95	Keki Daruwalla	175	Sethu
16	Anil Joshi	96	Kiran Nagarkar	176	Shafi Shauq
17	Anita Nair	97	KM Shrimali	177	Shailesh Singh
18	Anita Ratnam	98	KP Ramanunni	178	Shanta Acharya
19	Anita Thampi	99	Kunal Basu	179	Shanta Gokhale
20	Anjali Purohit	100	Kutti Revathi	180	Sharankumar Limbale
21	Anupama HS	101	M Mukundan	181	Sharmila Samant
22	Anuradha Kapur	102	MMP Singh	182	Shashi Deshpande
23	Anuradha Marwah	103	Madhu Bhaduri	183	Shekhar Joshi
24	Anvar Ali	104	Makarand Sathe	184	Shobha Singh
25	Apoorvanand	105	Malavika Kapur	185	Shubha
26	Arjumand Ara	106	Mamang Dai	186	Smita Sahay
27	Arjun Dangle	107	Mamta Sagar	187	Srilata K
28	Arun Kamal	108	Manash Bhattacharya	188	Subodh Sarkar
29	Arunava Sinha	109	Manasi	189	Sudeep Chakravarti
30	Arundhati Roy	110	Mangad Ratnakaran	190	Sudeshna Banerjee
31	Arvind Krishna Mehrotra	111	Mangalesh Dabral	191	Sudhanva Deshpande
32	Asad Zaidi	112	Manishi Jani	192	Sudhir Chandra
33	Asghar Wajahat	113	Manmohan	193	Suresh Chabria
34	Ashok Vajpeyi	114	Manoj Kulkarni	194	TM Krishna
35	Ashokan Charuvil	115	Manoj Kuroor	195	Tekchand
36	Ashwani Kumar	116	Maria Couto	196	Udayan Vajpeyi
37	Atamjit Singh	117	Meena Kandasamy	197	Urvashi Butalia
38	B Rajeevan	118	Megha Pansare	198	Vaasanthi
39	Badri Raina	119	Mogalli Ganesh	199	Vanamala Viswanatha
40	Bajrang Bihari Tiwari	120	Mrinal Pande	200	Vijay Prashad
41	Bali Singh	121	Mukul Kesavan	201	Venita Coelho
42	Bama	122	NS Madhavan	202	Vijayalakshmi
43	Basharat Peer	123	NP Hafiz Mohamad	203	Vinita Agrawal
44	Benyamin	124	Nabaneeta Dev Sen	204	Vinitabh
45	Bhasha Singh	125	Nalin Ranjan Singh	205	Vishnu Nagar
46	Bina Sarkar Ellias	126	Namita Gokhale	206	Vishwanath Tripathi
47	CS Chandrika	127	Namita Singh	207	Vivan Sundaram
48	Chaman Lal	128	Nancy Adajania	208	Vivek Shanbhag
49	Chandradasan	129	Nayantara Sahgal	209	Volga
50	Chandrakant Patil	130	Neeraj Singh	210	Zoya Hasan
51	Civic Chandran	131	Nityanand Tiwari	211	Akhil Katyal
52	Dalip Kaur Tiwana	132	Noor Zaheer	212	Menka Shivdasani
53	Damodar Mauzo	133	Orijit Sen	213	Chandan Gowda
54	Datta Damodar Naik	134	P Sivakami	214	Arjun Rajendran
55	Deepan Sivaraman	135	PN Gopikrishnan	215	Sheela Rohekar
56	Devdan Chaudhuri	136	PP Ramachandran	216	Asha Nambisan
57	Devendra Chaube	137	Pankaj Bisht	217	Vaidehi
58	Devi Prasad Mishra	138	Paul Zacharia	218	Premanand Gajveeg
59	Dinesh Kumar Shukla	139	Prabha Varma	219	Ravindra Verma
60	E Santhoshkumar	140	Prabodh Parikh	220	Mrinalini Harchandrai
61	EV Ramakrishnan	141	Pradnya Daya Pawar	221	Sucharita Dutta-Asane
62	GN Devy	142	Prem Tiwari	222	Annie Chandy
63	Gagan Gill	143	Priya Sarukkai Chabria	223	Keerti Ramachandra
64	Gauhar Raza	144	Purushottam Agarwal	224	Gita Subramanian
65	Geeta Kapur	145	R Unni	225	Poile Sengupta
66	Geetanjali Shree	146	Rahamath Tarikere	226	Sonja Chandrachud
67	Girdhar Rathi	147	Rahman Abbas	227	K.R.Usha
68	Girish Karnad	148	Rajendra Chenni	228	Usha Ramaswamy
69	Githa Hariharan	149	Rajendra Rajan	229	Valli Rao
70	Govind Prasad	150	Rajesh Joshi	230	Shoma Chatterji
71	Gulam Mohammed Sheikh	151	Rajiv Ranjan Singh	231	Muthukrishnan
72	HS Shivaprakash	152	Ramprakash Tripathi	232	Padmini Mongia
73	Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar	153	Ranjit Hoskote	233	Anjana Appachana
74	Hariyash Rai	154	Raosaheb Kasbe	234	Usha Rajagopalan
75	Harsh Mander	155	Rakesh Tiwari	235	Amrita Bhalla
76	Hemant Divate	156	Ravishankar	236	Saniya
77	Hemlata Maheshwar	157	Rekha Awasthi	237	Karthika Nair
78	Hiralal Rajasthani	158	Ritu Menon
79	Huchangi Prasad	159	Robin Ngangom
80	Ishrat Syed	160	Romila Thapar

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The Marathi appeal 

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The Hindi appeal 

 

Courtesy:Indian Cultural Forum
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