Author and activist Aakar Patel has said that regardless of whether there would be a change of government at the Centre, the civil society should come together and formulate an alternative vision of development, which will see a fare more relaxed South Asia and will be less nationalistic, more open, and outward-looking.
“Nations do not prosper alone,” he said, adding that a nation’s prosperity depended heavily on the prosperity of its neighbourhood. While India projected itself as a counter to China, it ranked below Bangladesh in terms of per capita GDP and therefore fell in the bracket with Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and sub-Saharan Africa.
The democratic backslide, he said, could only be effectively fought by the civil society, as seen in the case of the three controversial farm laws. Mr. Patel was delivering the 44th JP Memorial Lecture on ‘Candles in unending night: the paths visible for liberty and freedom after 2024’ organised by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) here on March 23 (Saturday).
Drawing on multiple examples and data, he said the political defeat of Muslims had been achieved in a way as envisaged by the leaders of Jan Sangh. Work was also under way for a unitarian and homogenous State, he said and added that those giving a fight back would do well to use all available spaces of free expression.
V. Suresh, PUCL general secretary, moderated the session.
