Hyderabad: Under the banner of “India inclusive”, 50 prominent personalities including activists, politicians, journalists, and academicians have initiated an online campaign against the widespread communal hate and violence.
The campaign ‘Reimagining India’ is a series of 50 lectures by these members. The videos of these lectures are posted on several social media platforms.
Former election commissioner S Y Qureshi, former IAS and Hindi writer Ashok Vajpayee, RJD (Rashtra Janata Dal) Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) Prof. Manoj Jha, Congress MP Shahi Tharoor and senior advocate and activist Prashanth Bhushan are a part of the online campaign.
Other prominent personalities in the campaign include social activist Romila Thapar, Hindi professor of Delhi University Apoorvanand, Samajwadi Party MP Sabha Javed Ali, historian Ram Puniyani, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja, famous historian S Irfaan Habib, social activist Shabnam Hashmi, and filmmaker Anand Patwardhan.
The campaign kicked off on the eve of Gandhi Jayanti with the release of the first set of six lectures. The lectures of Supriya Sule, Shashi Tharoor, Aarifa Khanum Sherwani, Ashok Vajpayee, Bhasha Singh and Jagmati Sangwan were released on October 2.
Shabnam Hashmi said that the purpose of this campaign is to present a social substitute. “There is a perception gaining ground that there is no substitute for the present government. This is a political perception and hence we have decided that if we cannot present a political alternative, let us present a social alternative,” she added.
She said that the main goal of the campaign is to ensure that there is no violence and hatred in the country and that people are living with love and peace. “Things are not moving as foreseen by those who laid down our constitution. We are trying to bring back the spirit of the Indian constitution in the society,” Shabnam remarked.
Shabnam asserted that the Indian media is totally in the control of the government and that there is no other way except to take the support of social media to reach to the people. “We had carried out an organized campaign in 2009 but this is the first time we are releasing lectures in an organized manner on social media. We would counter the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) divisive policies through these lectures.” She said.