File picture of Kannada scholar MM Kalburgi.
Mumbai:
High-profile scientists are among the latest to join writers and artists who have been protesting against what they call "growing intolerance" in the country.
A body that represents the collective wisdom of over 2000 of the best Indian scientists, the Inter-Academy Panel on Ethics in Science (IAPES), on Tuesday reminded the government to uphold reason and scientific temper. This comes after the murder of three well-known rationalists, including senior Kannada writer Professor MM Kalburgi.
The one-page statement issued jointly by the top three science academies uses Rabindra Nath Tagore's poetry to forcefully express its point of view on the growing intolerance:
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action,
Into that heaven of freedom;
Let my country awake.
The first of a kind statement goes on to express further anguish: "We note with sadness and growing anxiety several of statements and actions which run counter to this constitutional requirement ... exemplary punishment be given to such trespassers of reason and rights. We also appeal to all sections of Indian society to raise their voices against such violated acts, so that they are nipped in the bud."
Calling it an 'a-political statement', D Balasubramanian, former director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, told NDTV: "Today the scientists have lost their voice, earlier governments used to have a Scientific Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister a high powered body that advised the government on S&T matters, the present government has disbanded it so now there was no alternative but to issue a joint statement expressing our anguish and seeking the government to uphold the voice of reason and science."
A body that represents the collective wisdom of over 2000 of the best Indian scientists, the Inter-Academy Panel on Ethics in Science (IAPES), on Tuesday reminded the government to uphold reason and scientific temper. This comes after the murder of three well-known rationalists, including senior Kannada writer Professor MM Kalburgi.
The one-page statement issued jointly by the top three science academies uses Rabindra Nath Tagore's poetry to forcefully express its point of view on the growing intolerance:
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action,
Into that heaven of freedom;
Let my country awake.
The first of a kind statement goes on to express further anguish: "We note with sadness and growing anxiety several of statements and actions which run counter to this constitutional requirement ... exemplary punishment be given to such trespassers of reason and rights. We also appeal to all sections of Indian society to raise their voices against such violated acts, so that they are nipped in the bud."
Calling it an 'a-political statement', D Balasubramanian, former director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, told NDTV: "Today the scientists have lost their voice, earlier governments used to have a Scientific Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister a high powered body that advised the government on S&T matters, the present government has disbanded it so now there was no alternative but to issue a joint statement expressing our anguish and seeking the government to uphold the voice of reason and science."
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