Prominent citizens from different walks of life on Wednesday appealed to the voters to ensure defeat of the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
In a statement, they urged Left-wing and anti-communal activists not to campaign for the Aam Aadmi Party. People should vote for an AAP candidate only if there was no other candidate with a good chance of defeating the BJP/NDA in that particular constituency.
Terming Mr. Modi’s politics fascist, they said it was undeniable that fundamental rights and rule of law would be fatally undermined if he came to power.
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Mr. Modi could not be stopped without consolidating the anti-BJP vote, and one way of achieving this would be to work for an electoral united front of all secular parties, including the Congress, and Independents.
The appeal was signed by Anil Bhatia (independent journalist), Anjum Rajabali (scriptwriter and teacher), Aruna Burte (feminist activist), Hasina Khan (Muslim Women’s Rights Network), Irfan Engineer (All India Secular Forum), Javed Malick (university lecturer), Kamayani Bali Mahabal (feminist and human rights activist), Kannan Srinivasan (free-lance journalist and researcher), Manglura Vijay (author and social activist), Manohar Elavarthi (Praja Rajakiya Vedike), M. K. Prasad (Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad), Pradeep Esteves (independent researcher and consultant), Ramdas Rao (PUCL-Bangalore).
Ram Puniyani (All India Secular Forum), R. Christopher Rajkumar (National Council of Churches in India), Rebecca Kurian (anti-communal activist), Rohini Hensman (independent scholar and writer), Shaik Ubaid (human rights activist), S. Janakarajan (Madras Institute of Development Studies), Subhash Gatade (New Socialist Initiative), Sumi Krishna (independent feminist scholar and writer), Uday Chandra (political scientist), Uma V. Chandru (PUCL-Bangalore and WSS National Campaign), Zaheer Ahmed Sayeed (neurologist) were among those who signed the appeal.
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