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On Wednesday, over 50 Bollywood actors, writers and filmmakers signed an appeal which urged Indians not to vote for nationalist hardliner Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the ongoing general elections in the country, and choose a “secular” party instead. Critics fear that if the BJP comes to power, it would set off religious tensions in the country.
Some of the more prominent names who endorse the letter include actress Nandita Das, singer Shubha Mudgal and directors Imtiaz Ali, Zoya Akhtar and Mahesh Bhatt. The letter comes as the BJP is being thought of as the front-runner in the election and is tipped to win a majority vote, with Narendra Modi as their candidate for Prime Minister.
“The best thing about our country is its cultural diversity, its pluralism — the co-existence of a number of religions and ethnicities over centuries, and hence the blooming of multiple streams of intellectual and artistic thought, and, this has been possible only because Indian society has prided itself on being essentially secular in character, rejecting communal hatred, embracing tolerance. Today, that very sense of India is vulnerable”, the letter said.
The letter appeared on Wednesday on the website of the newspaper the Mumbai Mirror; it called on voters to pick a secular party likely to win in their constituency. India’s secular status has turned out to be a key issue in the upcoming elections. Critics are afraid that Modi’s nationalist agenda could stoke religious tensions in the country. India has a Hindu-majority population, and 13% of the nation’s 1.2 billion people are Muslims.
Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat, is a divisive figure in the country, after being accused of not preventing the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002, which saw the loss of over a thousand lives; Modi has denied the charges against him, Only last week, a group of Indian academics and artists, including prominent author Salman Rushdie, wrote to British newspaper The Guardian to express “acute worry” over a Modi-led India.
