The Hindu : New Delhi News : “There can be no democracy without dissent”

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Sunday, Dec 02, 2007
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“There can be no democracy without dissent”

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: “Only when people grow into mature political thinkers and graduate from having a local interest to national interest will we be able to speak truth to power. The question is can we identify and mobilise such people to make a better India,” said noted social activist and Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy.

Delivering the Bhim Sen Sachar Memorial Lecture on “Speaking Truth to Power” here on Saturday, Ms. Roy shared her views and concerns about politics and power while relating her experience of working with the villagers of Rajasthan and the Right to Information campaign.

Emphasising the importance of the topic, Ms. Roy said: “In India the space to speak truth to power is increasingly shrinking, but it exists nevertheless. In such an atmosphere where the State has taken to removing these spaces, publicly acknowledged space for dissent has to be fought for. There can be no democracy without dissent.”

According to Ms. Roy, apart from the shrinking space for dissent, the area of protest is shrinking too and needs to be protected. “During the Janadesh Rally organised in the Capital recently, the participants who had come from Gwalior were not allowed to walk from Ramlila Grounds to Jantar Mantar, which is the only area provided for staging protests in the Capital,” she recalled.

Ms. Roy also said there was a need to accept difference of opinion in a democracy and it was important to fight for plurality in order to speak the truth.

Criticising the middle class for refraining from an active engagement in the political and religious discourse in the country, Ms. Roy lamented: “What I have learnt from working with the rural people in India is that the middle class has become bankrupt and has stopped speaking the truth. In such a context, speaking truth to power means the capability of seeing things and accepting that differences and cruelty still exist.”

“While our rate of economic growth is pegged at 8.5 per cent, there are still 13 lakh women from the scavenger community who carry head loads each day. This is a blot on the image of shining India,” she added.

Ms. Roy said we have to fight for redefining poverty in terms of real poverty: “Instead of going by material indictors we should be guided by real indicators of poverty such as malnutrition, hunger and infant mortality rate.”

Appreciating the rural folks in India for their courage to stand up for issues affecting them, Ms. Roy said: “We have to learn to take a cue from such people who have the courage to fight even at their village level and take it from there.”

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