Over a hundred little known filmmakers, who very few people have heard of, have issued a joint statement asking people to vote the BJP out of power. Coming under the banner of ‘Save Democracy’, the artists claim that they have come together “to protect the democracy of the country.”
Claiming that “Fascism” is looming over the country, the filmmakers said, “As we all know, ever since the BJP came to power in 2014, things have changed. And only for the worse. A country polarised along religious lines isn’t the India we have known. Besides, the BJP and its allies have failed miserably in keeping their election promises. They are now using mob lynching and cow vigilantism to split the country communally. Marginalizing Dalits and Muslims is the name of the game. They are spreading their hate campaigns with the help of the internet and social media.”
They added, “Patriotism is their trump card. Any individual or institution that raises the slightest dissent is labeled ‘anti-national’. ‘Patriotism’ is how they grow their vote bank. Let us not forget that some of our eminent writers and media persons lost their lives because they dared to dissent.”
The artists also accused the BJP of “exploiting” the Armed Forces. They stated, “Romanticizing and exploiting the armed forces is one of their strategies, even at the risk of engaging the nation in an unnecessary war. There is an unrelenting onslaught on the cultural and scientific institutions in the country. They mock the collective intelligence of the people by appointing persons with no relevance or experience as heads of these institutions, propagating unscientific and irrational beliefs even at international science seminars, making us the laughing stock of the entire world. Banning and censoring ‘works of art’, especially the most powerful of the lot – Cinema and Books – is their way of keeping the population away from the truth.”
Calling the 2019 General Elections the “last chance”, the filmmakers urged people to vote for an alternative that “respects the Constitution”. “We urge all of you to do everything in your capacity to keep this harmful regime from coming back to power. Let your mandate be to choose a government that respects the Constitution of India, protects our freedom of speech and expression, and refrains from all kinds of censorship,” they stated.
The names of the people who have issued the statement are as follows:
- Aashiq Abu
- Abhijnan Sarkar
- Abhro Banerjee
- Ajayan Bala
- Ambika Rao
- Amitabha Chatterjee
- Amshan Kumar
- Amudhan R
- Anand Patwardhan
- Aneez K Mappila
- Anirudda Sharma
- Anjali Monteiro
- Anupama Bose
- Arun Karthick
- Arun M
- Arun N Sivan
- Asha Unnithan
- Babu Easwar Prasad
- Baburaj V G
- Baburaj Pandavath
- Bina Paul
- C S Venkateswaran
- Dar Ghai
- Devashish Makhija
- Debjani Banerjee
- Debalina
- Deepa Dhanraj
- Deepesh T
- Dileep Daz
- Divya Bharathi
- Gobi Nayanar
- Goutham Soorya
- Gurvinder Singh
- Indrasis Acharya
- Indraneel Lahiri
- Jayan Cheriyan
- Jeeva K J
- Jeeva Ponnuchamy
- Jiju Antony
- Jisha
- Jhelum Roy
- Jubith Namradath
- Kabir Singh Chowdhry
- K B Venu
- K P Jayashankar
- Kombai S Anwar
- Kamal K M
- Leela Santhosh
- Leena Manimekalai
- Madhupal
- Maheen Mirza
- Malini Jeevarathnam
- Manisha Korde
- Manoj Kana
- MG Sasi
- Miransha Naik
- Maulik Raj
- Muhsin Parari
- Nishtha Jain
- P F Mathews
- Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy
- Pradeep Nair
- Pradeep Dipu
- Prakash Bare
- Pramod Payyannur
- Prasanna S Kumar
- Pratap Jospeh
- Prateek Vats
- Praveen Morchhale
- Prem Chand
- Priyanandanan
- Pushpendra Singh
- Q
- Rafeeq Ellias
- Ranjith Sankaran
- Rinchin
- Ritesh Sil
- Sajeevan Anthikkad
- Saji Palamel
- Sajin Baabu
- Sanalkumar Sasidharan
- Sandhya Goghale
- Sanjay Wadhwa
- Sanju Surendran
- Santosh Babusenan
- Sapna Bhavnani
- Sarvnik Kaur
- Satish Babusenan
- Shaji Mathew
- Sherief Easa
- Sherry Govindan
- Sreebala K Menon
- Subhash KR
- Sudevan
- Sukhpreet Kahlon
- Suman Mukhopadhyay
- Sunny Joseph
- Suresh Achoos
- Unni Vijayan
- 100.Vetri Maaran
- 101.Venu ISC
- 102.Viju Varma
- 103.Vinu Kolichal
During the run-up to the 2014 General Elections as well, various celebrities had come out against Narendra Modi. Many of them, with ostensibly higher popularity, had participated in the intolerance drama as well.
