THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior Congress leader and party’s working committee member Ramesh Chennithala has urged economist Amartya Sen, historian Romila Thapar, nutrition expert Dr Shakuntala Thilsted, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah and Kanimozhi Karunanidhi MP to reconsider their participation in a conference organised by the state government.
In his open letter, Chennithala termed the conference as a “carefully choreographed” effort by the government in the wake of the upcoming assembly election.
The ‘International Conference on Development and Democracy’ is scheduled to be held in Thiruvananthapuram on February 15. In his letter, Chennithala said his opinion should not be viewed as a partisan political voice, but as one from a concerned citizen and legislator who admired the distinguished scholarship, public contributions and commitment to democratic values of the invitees. Because of the immense moral and intellectual authority associated with their presence, he felt compelled to address them publicly.
Under ordinary circumstances such an invitation would merit appreciation, Chennithala said. But the present political context is far from ordinary. With the assembly elections scheduled for March, the conference appears less an academic forum and more a carefully choreographed effort aimed at reclaiming moral legitimacy for an incumbent government whose record on democratic freedoms, institutional integrity and public accountability is under sustained criticism and increasingly viewed as authoritarian.
The participation of globally respected intellectual figures, irrespective of intent, is likely to be projected as an endorsement of the incumbent regime. According to Chennithala, images, selective quotations and curated excerpts will be circulated to create the impression that leading global minds approve of the government’s claims on development and democracy, thereby masking the lived realities experienced by many people.
He said there was a perceptible shift over the past decade towards treating dissent as a threat rather than a democratic right. He cited the introduction of Section 118A of the Kerala Police Act in 2020 and its withdrawal following wide criticism.
Calls it carefully choreographed effort
With the assembly elections scheduled for March, the conference appears less an academic forum and more a carefully choreographed effort aimed at reclaiming moral legitimacy for an incumbent government whose record on democratic freedoms, institutional integrity and public accountability is under sustained criticism and increasingly viewed as authoritarian, said Chennithala