I/II. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Scientists-express-concern-over-rising-intolerance-in-India/articleshow/49550598.cms
Scientists express concern over rising intolerance in India Meera Vankipuram,TNN | Oct 27, 2015, 01.44 PM IST Scientists sent a petition to President Pranab Mukherjee on the rising intolerance in the country CHENNAI: After writers, scientists have now spoken out against the spread of intolerance and communal hatred in India. In a petition to the President, they have warned that this statement may be followed by stronger actions "akin to the award winners of Sahitya Akademi." A group of scientists from academic institutions across the country and abroad have signed a petition addressed to the President expressing their concern over recent incidents of intolerance, polarization and spread of communal hatred resulting in the death of innocent people and rationalists. The petition was generated based on a web-based campaign. In the letter, the scientists say they "strongly condemn" the atrocities and "join the protest of litterateurs in awakening people and the central and state governments to the dangers of not acting." They urged the President to take "serious note of these developments" and initiate suitable actions. The letter has stated that peace and harmony of the country is being "threatened by a rash of sectarian and bigoted acts that have recently escalated." Comparing a highly polarised community to "a nuclear bomb close to criticality," the letter states that the situation can "explode any time and drive the nation to utter chaos." The scientists urged the government to take the strictest action against those who are victimising and killing "innocent people for eating beef, sensible people for being against superstition, RTI activists or whistle blowers and many more innocent people with human values." Describing these acts as "anti-human and anti-civilizational," the letter states that people who even suggest these actions should be dealt with punishment "beyond that reserved for anti-national activity." Signatories include former director of the Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA, Pune) Naresh Dadhich, Varun Sahni of IUCAA, former director of the Harish-Chandra Research Institute (Allahabad) H S Mani, Tabish Qureshi of Jamia Millia Islamia (New Delhi) and scientists and academics from JNU, Institute of Physics (Bhubaneswar), IITs and other leading institutions. Signatories from Chennai include T R Govindarajan, emeritus professor at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) in Chennai and Professor at Chennai Mathematical Institute, G Rajasekaran, former joint director of IMSc, Chennai, G Baskaran, emeritus professor, IMSc, and IIT Madras professors Suresh Govindarajan and Dawood Kothawala. II. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Now-artists-scientists-decry-spread-of-intolerance-hate/articleshow/49559720.cms Now, artists, scientists decry spread of ‘intolerance, hate’ TNN | Oct 28, 2015, 01.11 AM IST Writers help each other wear a black band as a mark of protest outside Sahitya Akademi or National Academy of Letters, in New Delhi on October 23. (AP Photo) NEW DELHI/CHENNAI: The protest begun by writers has spread to other sections of the intelligentsia, with artists and scientists, in separate petitions on Tuesday, speaking out against what they described as a systematic spread of intolerance. More than 400 members of the artist community, including painters, gallerists and curators, issued a strongly worded statement signed by the likes of the London-based Anish Kapoor, Padma Vibhushan winning modernist K G Subramanyan and contemporary artist Subodh Gupta. READ ALSO: Writers march in protest ahead of Sahitya Akademi meeting "Although a few years ago, M F Husain had to go in exile from our country; but today, this intolerance...has crossed criminal limits," said Gupta. A section of scientists from key academic and research institutions began a web-based petition addressed to the President which said they were joining "protest of litterateurs in awakening people and central and state governments to the dangers of not acting". It compared the atmosphere to "a nuclear bomb close to criticality" that could "explode any time and drive the nation to chaos". [Box] -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
