The upcoming election is a crucial one. It asks for a re-affirmation of the most fundamental guarantees our Constitution gives us: equal rights to faith or lack thereof; culture; language; association; personal liberty and freedom of expression. These rights, even as they accrue to each of us individually, can only exist if they accrue to all Indian citizens — without partiality or discrimination.
To defend these rights, we must reject those who lynch or assault people, those who discriminate against people because of religion, caste, gender, language or region. Again, we must reject those who encourage such practices. We cannot endorse a politics that divides us, creates fears, and marginalises a large fraction of our society — women, dalits, adivasis, religious minorities, the persons with disabilities or the poor. Diversity is our democracy’s greatest strength; discrimination and non-inclusivity strike at its very foundation.
An atmosphere in which scientists, activists and rationalists are hounded, harassed, intimidated, censored, jailed, or worse, murdered, is not the future our country deserves. It is not the future we want to give our youth. We want them to awaken to a country that sees science as a means of democratic empowerment through sceptical, open-minded questioning, rather than just a commercial enterprise. We must put an end to the denigration of rational, evidence-based public discourse; only then can we create better resources and opportunities for jobs, education and research.
We appeal to all citizens to vote wisely, weighing arguments and evidence critically. We appeal to all citizens to remember our constitutional commitment to scientific temper. We appeal to you to vote against inequality, intimidation, discrimination, and unreason. These are inimical to the values of our Constitution, whose promise is best reflected in Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s famous words:
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
by narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”
Read the appeal in Hindi here.
| 1 | A. Mani | 82 | Mundur V. N. Murthy | 163 | Bhavtosh Bansal |
| 2 | Aaloka Kanhere | 83 | Nandita Narain | 164 | Priya Hasan |
| 3 | Abha Dev Habib | 84 | Naresh Dadhich | 165 | S. N. Hasan |
| 4 | Abhijit Majumder | 85 | Nisha Biswas | 166 | Dhruba Mukhopadhyay |
| 5 | Adish Dani | 86 | Niti Kumar | 167 | Resmi Lekshmi |
| 6 | Ajit M. Srivastava | 87 | Nixon Abraham | 168 | B. Ravindran |
| 7 | Akash Gautam | 88 | Pallavi Vibhuti | 169 | Jayant Murthy |
| 8 | Amala Bhave | 89 | Partho Sarothi Ray | 170 | Ashis Kumar Nandy |
| 9 | Amit Apte | 90 | Prabhakar Rajagopal | 171 | Niruj Mohan Ramanujam |
| 10 | Amit Bhaya | 91 | Prabir Purkayastha | 172 | M. C. Arunan |
| 11 | Amit Misra | 92 | Pradip Dasgupta | 173 | Sandeep K. Shukla |
| 12 | Amitabh Joshi | 93 | Pradipta Bandyopadhyay | 174 | Nissim Kanekar |
| 13 | Amitabha Bandyopadhyay | 94 | Prajval Shastri | 175 | Nirupam Roy |
| 14 | Amites Dasgupta | 95 | Prakash Burte | 176 | Manoj Purvankara |
| 15 | Aniket Sule | 96 | Pranay Goel | 177 | Rahul Nigam |
| 16 | Anindita Bhadra | 97 | Prasad Subramanian | 178 | Chinmay Mukhopadhyay |
| 17 | Anirban Mukherjee | 98 | R. Ramanujam | 179 | Vidyanand Nanjundiah |
| 18 | Ankan Paul | 99 | Raghav Rajan | 180 | Jonaki Sen |
| 19 | Anna George | 100 | Raghunath Chelakkot | 181 | Nagaraj Balasubramanian |
| 20 | Anup Padmanabhan | 101 | Rahul Roy | 182 | Collins Assisi |
| 21 | Argha Banerjee | 102 | Rahul Siddharthan | 183 | Suhita Nadkarni |
| 22 | Arjun Guha | 103 | Rajiva Raman | 184 | Partha P. Majumder |
| 23 | Arnab Bhattacharya | 104 | Rama Govindarajan | 185 | Soumitro Banerjee |
| 24 | Asha Gopinathan | 105 | Ramesh Awasthi | 186 | Parthiba Basu |
| 25 | Atindra N. Pal | 106 | Ramkumar Sambasivan | 187 | Imroze Khan |
| 26 | Aurnab Ghose | 107 | Ramya T. N. C. | 188 | Narmada Khare |
| 27 | Avinash Dhar | 108 | Riddhi Shah | 189 | Kazi Rajibul Islam |
| 28 | Ayalvadi Ganesh | 109 | Rohini Karandikar | 190 | Ushak Rahaman |
| 29 | Ayan Banerjee | 110 | Rohini Muthuswami | 191 | Koel Das |
| 30 | Bidisa Das | 111 | Rupali Gangopadhyay | 192 | Abhishek Dhar |
| 31 | Chayanika Shah | 112 | Sabyasachi Chatterjee | 193 | Savita Ladage |
| 32 | Chetana Sachidanandan | 113 | Saman Habib | 194 | Kunal Chakraborty |
| 33 | Chinmayee Mishra | 114 | Samriddhi Sankar Ray | 195 | Mahendra Nadkarni |
| 34 | Chinmoy Chatterjee | 115 | Samudrala Gourinath | 196 | Ashish Asgekar |
| 35 | Debabrata Ghosh | 116 | Saroj Ghaskadbi | 197 | Supratim Sengupta |
| 36 | Debashis Ghoshal | 117 | Satyajit Mayor | 198 | Malancha Ta |
| 37 | Debashis Mukherjee | 118 | Satyajit Rath | 199 | U. K. Anandavardhanan |
| 38 | Debashish Goswami | 119 | Shailaja Sopory | 200 | Dipendra Prasad |
| 39 | Deepak Barua | 120 | Shanta Laishram | 201 | Vidya T. N. C. |
| 40 | Deepika Choubey | 121 | Shivprasad Patil | 202 | Parasar Mohanty |
| 41 | Devaki Kelkar | 122 | Shobha Madan | 203 | Felix Bast |
| 42 | Dibyendu Nandi | 123 | Shraddha Kumbhojkar | 204 | C S Rajan |
| 43 | Dinesh Abrol | 124 | Shubhi Parolia | 205 | Madabusi Raghunathan |
| 44 | Dinu Chandran | 125 | Sitabhra Sinha | 206 | Chandan Dalawat |
| 45 | Dipshikha Chakravortty | 126 | Smita Krishnan | 207 | Shashi Mohan Srivastava |
| 46 | Dipti Jadhav | 127 | Sorab Dalal | 208 | Raj Kumar Manna |
| 47 | Divya Oberoi | 128 | Spenta Wadia | 209 | Ramesh Sreekantan |
| 48 | Gagandeep Kang | 129 | Srikanth Sastry | 210 | Chaitanya Athale |
| 49 | Gaiti Hasan | 130 | Sriram Ramaswamy | 211 | Kamal Lodaya |
| 50 | Gauhar Raza | 131 | Subhadip Ghosh | 212 | Deepshikha Jaiswal-Nagar |
| 51 | Gautam Menon | 132 | Subhadip Mitra | 213 | Apoorva Nagar |
| 52 | Geeta Mahashabde | 133 | Subhash C. Lakhotia | 214 | Parthasarathi Majumdar |
| 53 | Geetha Venkataraman | 134 | Suchitra Gopinath | 215 | Aneesh PremaBalakrishnan |
| 54 | Gyan Prakash | 135 | Sudeshna Sinha | 216 | S. Akshay |
| 55 | Harita Raval | 136 | Sudipto Muhuri | 217 | Juie Shetye |
| 56 | Harjinder (Laltu) Singh | 137 | Sugata Ray | 218 | Dipankar |
| 57 | Imrana Qadeer | 138 | Sugra Chunawala | 219 | Naresh K Chandiramani |
| 58 | J. G. Krishnayya | 139 | Sumeet Agarwal | 220 | Debasis Mondal |
| 59 | Jagat K Roy | 140 | Sumilan Banerjee | 221 | Shouvik Datta |
| 60 | Jayashree Ramadas | 141 | Surendra Ghaskadbi | 222 | Mahan Mj. |
| 61 | Jayashree Sen Gupta | 142 | Swapan Chakrabarti | 223 | Arijit Bhattacharyay |
| 62 | Joby Joseph | 143 | Tapan Ghosh | 224 | Arghya Das |
| 63 | Jyotishman Bhowmick | 144 | Tapan Saha | 225 | Vivek Tanavde |
| 64 | Jyotsna Dhawan | 145 | Tejal Kanitkar | 226 | Raghavan Rangarajan |
| 65 | Kapil Paranjape | 146 | Tushar Vaidya | 227 | Supratik Chakraborty |
| 66 | Karthikeyan Vasudevan | 147 | V. S. Sunder | 228 | Pramod Pullarkat |
| 67 | Kartik Shanker | 148 | Vidita Vaidya | 229 | Ranjini Bandyopadhyay |
| 68 | Kumarjit Saha | 149 | Vijay Chandru | 230 | Sanjib Sabhapandit |
| 69 | L. S. Shashidhara | 150 | Vineeta Bal | 231 | Ramyani Chakrabarty |
| 70 | Madan Rao | 151 | Vivek Borkar | 232 | Sachin C. Patwardhan |
| 71 | Madhavi Reddy | 152 | Vivek Monteiro | 233 | Sumati Surya |
| 72 | Madhulika Srivastava | 153 | S. G. Dani | 234 | Sk Sazim |
| 73 | Manisha Gupte | 154 | Mangala Narlikar | 235 | Shiraz Minwalla |
| 74 | Mayank Vahia | 155 | Yashoda Ghanekar | 236 | Mahendra K. Singh |
| 75 | Mayurika Lahiri | 156 | Abhijit Mitra | 237 | Siddhartha Ghosh |
| 76 | Medha S. Rajadhyaksha | 157 | Manojendu Choudhury | 238 | Swagata Sarkar |
| 77 | Mercy J. Raman | 158 | D. P. Kasbekar | 239 | Manas G. A. |
| 78 | Mihir Arjunwadkar | 159 | Roop Mallik | 240 | Reeteka Sud |
| 79 | Mohan Rao | 160 | Vijay Lale | 241 | Kedar Damle |
| 80 | Mrinal K Ghosh | 161 | Aneeshkumar Arimbasseri | 242 | Ravi Banavar |
| 81 | Mugdha Karnik | 162 | Gitanjali Yadav | 243 | Durba Sengupta |
