More than 150 Scientists Appeal to Citizens: Let us vote to unify the people. Let us vote to spread the light of reason. - IAMC

More than 150 Scientists Appeal to Citizens: Let us vote to unify the people. Let us vote to spread the light of reason.

More than 150 Scientists Appeal to Citizens

Let us vote to unify the people. Let us vote to spread the light of reason.

April 3, 2019

The upcoming election is a crucial one. It asks for a re-affirmation of the most fundamental guarantees our Constitution gives us: equal rights to faith or lack thereof; culture; language; association; personal liberty and freedom of expression. These rights, even as they accrue to each of us individually, can only exist if they accrue to all Indian citizens — without partiality or discrimination.

To defend these rights, we must reject those who lynch or assault people, those who discriminate against people because of religion, caste, gender, language or region. Again, we must reject those who encourage such practices. We cannot endorse a politics that divides us, creates fears, and marginalises a large fraction of our society — women, dalits, adivasis, religious minorities, the persons with disabilities or the poor. Diversity is our democracy’s greatest strength; discrimination and non-inclusivity strike at its very foundation.

An atmosphere in which scientists, activists and rationalists are hounded, harassed, intimidated, censored, jailed, or worse, murdered, is not the future our country deserves. It is not the future we want to give our youth. We want them to awaken to a country that sees science as a means of democratic empowerment through sceptical, open-minded questioning, rather than just a commercial enterprise. We must put an end to the denigration of rational, evidence-based public discourse; only then can we create better resources and opportunities for jobs, education and research.

We appeal to all citizens to vote wisely, weighing arguments and evidence critically. We appeal to all citizens to remember our constitutional commitment to scientific temper. We appeal to you to vote against inequality, intimidation, discrimination, and unreason. These are inimical to the values of our Constitution, whose promise is best reflected in Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s famous words:

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
by narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth 

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way 
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”

Read the appeal in Hindi here.

1 A. Mani 77 Mercy J. Raman 153 S. G. Dani
2 Aaloka Kanhere 78 Mihir Arjunwadkar 154 Mangala Narlikar
3 Abha Dev Habib 79 Mohan Rao 155 Yashoda Ghanekar
4 Abhijit Majumder 80 Mrinal K Ghosh 156 Abhijit Mitra
5 Adish Dani 81 Mugdha Karnik 157 Manojendu Choudhury
6 Ajit M. Srivastava 82 Mundur V. N. Murthy 158 D. P. Kasbekar
7 Akash Gautam 83 Nandita Narain 159 Roop Mallik
8 Amala Bhave 84 Naresh Dadhich 160 Vijay Lale
9 Amit Apte 85 Nisha Biswas 161 Aneeshkumar Arimbasseri
10 Amit Bhaya 86 Niti Kumar 162 Gitanjali Yadav
11 Amit Misra 87 Nixon Abraham 163 Bhavtosh Bansal
12 Amitabh Joshi 88 Pallavi Vibhuti 164 Priya Hasan
13 Amitabha Bandyopadhyay 89 Partho Sarothi Ray 165 S. N. Hasan
14 Amites Dasgupta 90 Prabhakar Rajagopal 166 Dhruba Mukhopadhyay
15 Aniket Sule 91 Prabir Purkayastha 167 Resmi Lekshmi
16 Anindita Bhadra 92 Pradip Dasgupta 168 B. Ravindran
17 Anirban Mukherjee 93 Pradipta Bandyopadhyay 169 Jayant Murthy
18 Ankan Paul 94 Prajval Shastri 170 Ashis Kumar Nandy
19 Anna George 95 Prakash Burte 171 Niruj Mohan Ramanujam
20 Anup Padmanabhan 96 Pranay Goel 172 M. C. Arunan
21 Argha Banerjee 97 Prasad Subramanian 173 Sandeep K. Shukla
22 Arjun Guha 98 R. Ramanujam 174 Nissim Kanekar
23 Arnab Bhattacharya 99 Raghav Rajan 175 Nirupam Roy
24 Asha Gopinathan 100 Raghunath Chelakkot 176 Manoj Purvankara
25 Atindra N. Pal 101 Rahul Roy 177 Rahul Nigam
26 Aurnab Ghose 102 Rahul Siddharthan 178 Chinmay Mukhopadhyay
27 Avinash Dhar 103 Rajiva Raman 179 Vidyanand Nanjundiah
28 Ayalvadi Ganesh 104 Rama Govindarajan 180 Jonaki Sen
29 Ayan Banerjee 105 Ramesh Awasthi 181 Nagaraj Balasubramanian
30 Bidisa Das 106 Ramkumar Sambasivan 182 Collins Assisi
31 Chayanika Shah 107 Ramya T. N. C. 183 Suhita Nadkarni
32 Chetana Sachidanandan 108 Riddhi Shah 184 Partha P. Majumder
33 Chinmayee Mishra 109 Rohini Karandikar 185 Soumitro Banerjee
34 Chinmoy Chatterjee 110 Rohini Muthuswami 186 Parthiba Basu
35 Debabrata Ghosh 111 Rupali Gangopadhyay 187 Imroze Khan
36 Debashis Ghoshal 112 Sabyasachi Chatterjee 188 Narmada Khare
37 Debashis Mukherjee 113 Saman Habib 189 Kazi Rajibul Islam
38 Debashish Goswami 114 Samriddhi Sankar Ray 190 Ushak Rahaman
39 Deepak Barua 115 Samudrala Gourinath 191 Koel Das
40 Deepika Choubey 116 Saroj Ghaskadbi 192 Abhishek Dhar
41 Devaki Kelkar 117 Satyajit Mayor 193 Savita Ladage
42 Dibyendu Nandi 118 Satyajit Rath 194 Kunal Chakraborty
43 Dinesh Abrol 119 Shailaja Sopory 195 Mahendra Nadkarni
44 Dinu Chandran 120 Shanta Laishram 196 Ashish Asgekar
45 Dipshikha Chakravortty 121 Shivprasad Patil 197 Supratim Sengupta
46 Dipti Jadhav 122 Shobha Madan 198 Malancha Ta
47 Divya Oberoi 123 Shraddha Kumbhojkar 199 U. K. Anandavardhanan
48 Gagandeep Kang 124 Shubhi Parolia 200 Dipendra Prasad
49 Gaiti Hasan 125 Sitabhra Sinha 201 Vidya T. N. C.
50 Gauhar Raza 126 Smita Krishnan 202 Parasar Mohanty
51 Gautam Menon 127 Sorab Dalal 203 Felix Bast
52 Geeta Mahashabde 128 Spenta Wadia 204 C S Rajan
53 Geetha Venkataraman 129 Srikanth Sastry 205 Madabusi Raghunathan
54 Gyan Prakash 130 Sriram Ramaswamy 206 Chandan Dalawat
55 Harita Raval 131 Subhadip Ghosh 207 Shashi Mohan Srivastava
56 Harjinder (Laltu) Singh 132 Subhadip Mitra 208 Raj Kumar Manna
57 Imrana Qadeer 133 Subhash C. Lakhotia 209 Ramesh Sreekantan
58 J. G. Krishnayya 134 Suchitra Gopinath 210 Chaitanya Athale
59 Jagat K Roy 135 Sudeshna Sinha 211 Kamal Lodaya
60 Jayashree Ramadas 136 Sudipto Muhuri 212 Deepshikha Jaiswal-Nagar
61 Jayashree Sen Gupta 137 Sugata Ray 213 Apoorva Nagar
62 Joby Joseph 138 Sugra Chunawala 214 Parthasarathi Majumdar
63 Jyotishman Bhowmick 139 Sumeet Agarwal 215 Aneesh PremaBalakrishnan
64 Jyotsna Dhawan 140 Sumilan Banerjee 216 S. Akshay
65 Kapil Paranjape 141 Surendra Ghaskadbi 217 Juie Shetye
66 Karthikeyan Vasudevan 142 Swapan Chakrabarti 218 Dipankar
67 Kartik Shanker 143 Tapan Ghosh 219 Naresh K Chandiramani
68 Kumarjit Saha 144 Tapan Saha 220 Debasis Mondal
69 L. S. Shashidhara 145 Tejal Kanitkar
70 Madan Rao 146 Tushar Vaidya
71 Madhavi Reddy 147 V. S. Sunder
72 Madhulika Srivastava 148 Vidita Vaidya
73 Manisha Gupte 149 Vijay Chandru
74 Mayank Vahia 150 Vineeta Bal
75 Mayurika Lahiri 151 Vivek Borkar
76 Medha S. Rajadhyaksha 152 Vivek Monteiro