Congress leader Manish Tewari addresses the Democracy Convention 2024 in New Delhi on February 10. The Convention was addressed by academics and activists such as Romila Thapar, Apoorvanand, Ganesh Devy, Jayati Ghosh, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah and CPI-M General-Secretary Sitaram Yechury. | Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
As India gears up to vote in the Parliamentary elections this summer, over a hundred civil society influencers from across the country have committed themselves to directing public opinion against the rising authoritarian character of the Narendra Modi regime and building a coalition to safeguard constitutional institutions and rights.
In a two-day convention in New Delhi on February 10 and 11, eminent academics, human rights activists, former civil servants, and media professionals ideated a step change in strategy needed to contain the Modi regime’s Hindutva experiments from further encroaching civil liberties and upending the foundational underpinning of India’s secular and egalitarian polity.
In the two-day Democratic Convention, the civil society coalition highlighted measures to tackle important issues such as unemployment, stem the tide of majoritarian communalism, safeguard constitutional rights and the autonomy of statutory institutions, strengthen the federal contract and promote equality and social justice. The coalition said it was committed to taking their message across State capitals and other important cities to sensitise the wider public that democracy is on their ballot.
This story was originally published in frontline.thehindu.com. Read the full story here.
