400 Indian-Origin Scholars From 27 Countries Condemn ‘Anarchic’ Street Protests
NEW DELHI–More than 400 Indian-origin students, researchers and alumni affiliated with leading universities across 27 countries have signed a statement condemning attempts to undermine public confidence in India’s constitutional institutions and the use of “anarchic” street protests to delegitimise democratic processes.
The statement, titled “Spare India from Anarchy”, includes signatories associated with prominent academic institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Princeton University, Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, Columbia University, the London School of Economics (LSE) and the National University of Singapore.
The Indian-origin scholars cautioned against efforts to subvert constitutional democracy in the name of defending it, according to the statement circulated on Monday.
“We urge all social and political forces to take cognisance of our distress and desires and resolve differences through debate, discussion, dialogue and dissent under the roof of constitutional institutions that our venerable founding fathers created for us. India needs to set an example for the democratic world, for all the right reasons. We hope wisdom will prevail,” the statement said.
The signatories are currently based in or have studied in countries including the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Israel, the UAE, Kazakhstan, Georgia and the Philippines.
The statement reaffirmed the signatories’ faith in India’s democratic resilience, arguing that the country’s constitutional institutions had flourished with adequate checks and balances.
“An unconscionable and devious plan of sowing seeds of doubt in Indian democracy has been hatched by weaponising sub-judice matters, which is then amplified on the streets by leaning on anarchist forces, which have historically and philosophically never believed in constitutional form of governance. All in the name of saving democracy. We remain amazed at the irony of all,” the statement said.
Describing themselves as informed individuals with a stake in India’s future, the signatories said they were deeply concerned about developments affecting the country’s democratic institutions.
“As informed people who have stakes in the future of this country and travel the world identifying as ‘Indians,’ we are deeply anguished at this state of affairs,” they said.
The scholars also invoked the warnings of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, the principal architect of the Indian Constitution, against abandoning constitutional methods in favour of extra-constitutional agitation.
They recalled Ambedkar’s exhortation that, for India to survive as a constitutional republic, citizens must “hold fast to constitutional methods” and abandon “the bloody methods of revolution”, which he described as “the grammar of anarchy”.
” Increasingly, anarchy is becoming an expression of choice – ready to supplant the spirit and wisdom of fraternite,” the statement said.
Among the signatories named in the statement are Surabhi Hodigere of Harvard University; Devansh Sharma and Samyukta Shrivatsa of Stanford University; Ashik Mayakonda of the University of Cambridge; Nitish Rai Parwani, Ashish Gaurav, Shaoni Kar and Mukund Madhav Sharma of the University of Oxford; Niyati Yadav of the University of Manchester; and Rajneesh Kumar Mishra of Yeungnam University in South Korea.
The statement called on political and social groups to resolve disagreements through dialogue and debate within the framework of constitutional institutions, emphasising the importance of preserving democratic processes. (Source: IANS)
