Why are filmmakers, activists, writers, and other artists appealing against voting BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections?

All the artists have come together under the umbrella of “Save Democracy”, to end the authoritarian regime of Narendra Modi. Maybe they are the ones to realize that India is shifting from being a democracy to an authoritarian state because they are (supposed to be) the mouthpiece of all of us. Especially of those who have suffered the most under Modi government –the marginalized. And their freedom of expression has been taken away, along with many other freedoms which are promised to us in our constitution.

(Courtesy: Times of India)

There is no denying that BJP has the ideology of RSS at its core. We can’t also deny that the party has always used jingoism and the polarization along religious lines to increase its vote banks. BJP has been successful in winning the “bhakts” by making Ram Mandir as its agenda, and under this agenda, it has successfully hidden the promises which it made in 2014 and did not fulfill.

Who’s to talk about jobs, employment, and development? Is India getting modernized on the grass root level?

Sadly No!

India is suffering from mob lynching, Dalit and Muslim marginalization, hate politics, erosion of cultural and religious diversity, and censorship on the grass root level. All these problems are very conveniently brushed under the carpet on which Mr. Modi is standing and giving glorious speeches which are attractive enough to win him more and more Bhakts.

Now all these artists, which include around 200 writers like Amitav Ghosh, Romila Thapar, Arundhati Roy, Jerry Pinto, Keki Daruwalla, Harsh Mander, Ranjit Hoskote, R. Unni, Anand Teltumbde, Zoya Hasan and Girish Karnad, and certain filmmakers like Vetri Maaran, Anand Patwardhan, Sanalkumar Sasidharan, Sudevan, Q, Deepa Dhanraj, Gurvinder Singh, Pushpendra Singh, Kabir Singh Chowdhry, Anjali Monteiro, Praveen Morchhale, Devashish Makhija and festival director and editor, Bina Paul claim that after all this India is on its way to being transformed into a fascist state.

All these artists want nothing but to save the country from getting divided on the basis of communalism.

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They want a country where women’s esteem is not less than that of cows, where people are not ashamed of calling themselves belonging to a certain caste or religion, where no one is afraid to practice the right to dissent or the right to information. A country where people are not manipulated and called anti-national on every little dissent of theirs. A country where the army is not over-romanticized to win the votes. A country where equality, diversity, and freedom of thought is preserved.

A country where diversity and democracy flourishes.