After writers, teachers voice concern over ‘intolerance’

About 225 academicians, including 16 from foreign universities, have blamed the Narendra Modi government for mandating an atmosphere of violence and fear in the country. 

This comes in the light of recent killings of noted writers and intellectuals M Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar and the Dadri lynching incident, followed by forced nationwide attempts at cultural policing.

Taking a dig at PM Modi’s silence, the academicians  flayed the growing intolerance in the country. They, in a joint statement, said: “The government’s negligible response to these growing incidents across the country, as also its silence in times of extreme distress, have provided tacit support to activities by those no longer at the ‘fringe’ but now occupying the mainstream.”

“The scant condemnation accorded to these incidents by the government amounts to abstention from constitutional responsibility and encouragement to greater hostility and aggression, especially against religious and caste minorities. The resolute silence of the political leadership at the Centre puts in question its own complicity in these events,” the statement signed by professors from Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University said.