The concluding day of the international conference on Dr. B.R. Ambedkar became a platform for several scholars to oppose the Narendra Modi-led Union government and call for a strategic alliance of progressive forces with the Congress to stop “the Hindutva juggernaut” in 2019.
Social scientist G. Haragopal, professor at the National Law School of India University, said 2019 would be a critical point in the country’s history, with the Constitution of India “at stake”. Dalit intellectual Anand Teltumbde observed that the country was living in “de facto fascism” and de jure fascism was just two or three years away.
Responding to a statement by former MP Balchandra Mungekar that progressive forces needed to unite with the Congress in 2019, Marxist economist Prof. Prabhat Patnaik said: “We are ready to align with the Congress if the Congress also reforms itself.”
