In the Indian democracy, space for dissent is shrinking: Ashok Vajpeyi

What’s the space for dissent in Indian democracy in today’s India? This was a question that got four great minds—Perumal Murugan, Ashok Vajpeyi, Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar and N Ram—got together to brainstorm at the Times LitFest Delhi.
Vajpeyi said dissent is part of the Indian tradition because three great religions dissented from Hinduism—Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.“However, space for dissent was always contested. Yet, some values from our great Indian tradition also entered our Constitution apart from the ideals that inspired our national movement. In the last 100 years, Indian literature has been one of dissent. Most writings in free India have been anti-establishment,” he said.
The noted litterateur noted that the state was always interfering. “But in our current climate, both the state and the communities are interfering,” Vajpeyi said.
Shekhar, whose book was banned recently, said in his case both the ruling party and the opposition worked together to get his book banned.
Perumal Murugan, who was welcomed with a thunderous applause, said that social media has been a big factor in the shrinking of the space for dissent. “Society is unequal, riddled by caste. Social media noise has accentuated those inequalities,” Murugan said.
N Ram, the former editor of , recounted his own experience of investigating the Bofors scam in the 1980s, and fighting numerous lawsuits slapped on him and his publication by the Jayalalitha government in the past. “But the hardships we faced in the past are nothing when compared to what people are facing today. It was never this bad,” he said.
Ram said laws in India have been illiberal and haven’t seen much change since colonial times. “The changes have been status quo-ist, not transformative. But even when there have been changes, ground reality has always been different,” he said.
Ram also pointed out the current political environment going against free speech and dissent. “Look at the episode. We all must hang our heads in shame. It’s all BJP governments that have declared bans on it even before knowing what it contains. How is it different from Ayatollah Khomeini (who had issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie for writing )?” Ram said.
Vajpeyi added to it and said, “One good thing about all governments is that they are all foolish. So, if you are clever, you can escape attention and still say what you want to say. But in this fight for our democratic space, the television media has really betrayed us. It’s only the print media that’s still raising issues,” Vajpeyi said.
Ram also pointed out the “chilling effect” of crushing of dissent on writers. Murugan added to that and said it has affected him and his writing a lot as now he is conscious about what he is writing.
Vajpeyi said this is really unfortunate as writers have always been outrageous, whether Kalidasa or Kabir. “Unless you are fearless in this environment, what good are you as a writer?” he said.