By IndiaTomorrow.net,New Delhi, 22 Dec 2015: Eminent civil rights activist and academician Prof. Apoorvanand has denounced the culture of intolerance and demagoguery prevailing in the country for the last couple of years. He was speaking at Guftgu event organized by Jamia Collective, a civil initiative for creating open space for dialogues.
“Here is an atmosphere whose nature and character is laffazi (demagoguery). In this atmosphere, it is impossible to talk logically and you can’t give logics. If you talk logically against (Baba) Ramdev, your head may be crushed or you may be killed. So, you will have to remain silent…When you talk logically, they will hurl stone at you or beat you with stick or even kill you. Such behavior is clearly visible on social media where an atmosphere of a sort of mob lynching is created if you utter a word of criticism,” Prof. Apoorvanand who teaches Hindi language at Delhi University.
“We saw its physical example in America. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was speaking at Madison Square, (senior journalist) Rajdeep Sardesai was interviewing people outside. He was interviewing as a professional journalist. But all of a sudden people started beating Rajdeep Sardesai. It means you can’t talk. You are not allowed to talk. They know only attack, nothing else.”
Prof. Apoorvanand expressed concern at the recent trend of attacking critics and questioning their credibility rather than discussing the points raised by them.
“For the last three years, we have seen that if one expresses a different view, he is questioned, his identity and credibility are questioned. He is branded anti-national. He is said that he had sold his conscience during the previous government. His position is shaking that’s why he is speaking (against). When I constantly keep speaking these things, people begin to think if my chair is really facing threat,” he said and gave the example of eminent English writer Nayantara Sahgal.
“When Nayantara Sahgal returned (Sahitya Akademi) award, she was attacked. It was said she is niece of Jawarharlal Nehru and sister of Indira Gandhi. People forgot that Nayantara Sahgal was the person who opposed Emergency (when it was imposed in 1975). She was then member of English advisory board of Sahitya Akademi. At that time too, she had written to Akademi asking it to oppose Emergency and censorship. When Sahitya Akademi declined to do so she resigned from her post. Her novel could not be published. The company which had proposed to make a film on her novel withdrew its proposal and once she reached to the brink of starvation. But people forgot this all and started attacking her (when she recently returned the award).
Prof Apoorvanand also said that BJP did not lose Bihar elections just because of anti-reservation remarks of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. In fact, he said, people of the state rejected the style of speaking of BJP leaders.
“It is said Mohan Bhagwat’s reservation remarks harmed BJP a lot in Bihar elections. By saying so, we are undermining the refined sensibility and intelligence of people of Bihar. We are reducing them to be mere selfish and economic being. We think that they thought their right was snatched, so they went against BJP. It is not true. If you walk in the villages of Bihar, you would get common people like rickshaw-pullers disliking the way of speaking (of BJP leaders). They said it was very cheap and dirty style of speaking. We don’t like it. They rejected their style. They replied that they don’t like this laffazi ((demagoguery),” said Prof. Apoorvanand.
