Full text of the statement "petitioning right minded intellectuals and intelligentsia" issued by a group of 36 eminent intellectuals, including Indian Council for Cultural Relations President Lokesh Chandra and noted writer SL Bhyrappa, that joins issue with a "section of the usual pallbearers of Indic civilisation – Congressmen of various hues, Marxists, Leninists, even a handful of Maoist" over "perceived mounting intolerance in society".

"The target," the statement says, "is clear and explicitly stated - none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who much to their dismay led his party to a clear majority in Parliament. Failure in the elections is now sought to be avenged by other means; it helps if the media (or sections of it) serve as cheerleaders."
India has witnessed a curious spectacle these last few weeks. A section of the nation’s intelligentsia has expressed outrage at a perceived mounting intolerance in society. In the forefront are the usual pallbearers of Indic civilisation – Congressmen of various hues, Marxists, Leninists, even a handful of Maoists. The target is clear and explicitly stated – none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who much to their dismay led his party to a clear majority in Parliament. Failure in the elections is now sought to be avenged by other means; it helps if the media (or sections of it) serve as cheerleaders.

An initial joust was witnessed in accusations of attacks on Christian places of worship. It fizzled out when the actual culprits were nabbed.

Then, the murder of a resident of Uttar Pradesh, allegedly because he consumed beef, is certainly condemnable, but how is the Central Government to blame? Uttar Pradesh is a state infamous for violence of every kind. Had the Centre intervened and dismissed the State Government under Article 356 of the Constitution, for failure to uphold law, the protest brigade would have found another stick with which to beat it. The murders of Mr. Dabholkar and Mr. Kalburgi happened in states not ruled by the BJP; yet loose language is bandied about.

This same intelligentsia chooses not to remember that there has been no justice for victims of the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984 and the farmers killed in Nandigram in 2007 under the Congress and Left governments respectively. In fact, when the CPIM led Left Front government, professing to serve the “proletariat”, fired upon and killed innocent farmers it was a constituent of the UPA-I at the Centre and a close partner of the Congress party. A similar silence followed when in 2010 the hands of professor T.J.Joseph, in then CPIM ruled Kerala, were chopped off, simply because of his belief and articulations. There are other sins of commission, too many to list.

But the equation of the RSS with the terrorist Islamic State by an AMU scholar is simply breathtaking; it embarrassed intellectuals from his own community. As an eminent scholar of Islam he would be aware of its own recorded history and the ISIS’s self-documented abuse of human rights, including beheadings and wanton killings, not to mention rape, enslavement, et al.

All in all, the protests are much ado about the declining clout of a pampered section.

We therefore urge the people of India, who have repeatedly demonstrated great sagacity and wisdom, to not be diverted by a false narrative, and to focus, as they have done and continue to do, on the vision and aim of achieving unity, progress, growth and on seeing India become a great nation under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

1.      Dr. Lokesh Chandra, President ICCR
2.      Professor SL Bhyrappa, author, novelist, National Professor, Sahitya Akademi National Fellow
3.      Professor Kapil Kapoor, former Pro-VC JNU, Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi Antar-rashtriya Hindi Viswavidyalaya, Wardha
4.      Professor Dilip K. Chakrabarti, Professor Emeritus University of Cambridge, Member ICHR
5.       Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri (Akkitham), leading Poet, Sahitya Akademi Awardee, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Awardee.
6.       Professor Sumatheendra R Nadig, poet, author, Karnataka Sahitya Akademi  Awardee, former UGC Emeritus Fellow, former Chairman National Book Trust.
7.       Professor Purabi Roy, Member ICHR
8.        Professor Jayanta Kumar Ray, National Professor
9.       Dr. Meenakshi Jain, Member ICHR
10.    Professor Santisree Pandit, University of Pune
11.  Professor K.Gopinath, IISC, Bangalore
12.     Professor Aswini Mohapatra, JNU
13.    Professor Sacchidanand Sahai, Member, ICHR
14.     S Ramesan Nair, Poet, Lyricist
15.    Mrs. Sreekumari Ramachandran, Novelist, short story writer
16.    Professor C.I.Issac, Member ICHR
17.    Madampu Kunjukuttan, Author, Screenplay Writer
18.    Mrs. K. B Sreedevi, leading novelist, Malayalam
19.    Dr. Gautam Sen, former Professor LSE
20.    Dr. Prakash Shah, Associate Professor, Queen Mary University, London
21.   Dr. Saradindu Mukherjee, Member ICHR
22.    Dr. Nikhilesh Guha, Member ICHR
23.    Shri TS Nagabharana, Film Director, Karnataka
24.   Dr. Dodda Range Gowda, academician and former MLC
25.   Professor Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, Chaudhuri Charan Singh University, Meerut
26.    Dr. Inakshi Chaturvedi – Associate Professor University of Rajasthan
27.   N Kuttikrishna Pillai, author, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Awardee
28.   Dr. Madusoodhanan Pillai, Academic Director, Bharatiya Institute of Research, Tiruvananthapuram
29.   Professor Mohan Kashikar – University of Nagpur
30.   Professor Gopala Reddy – Osmania University
31.   Professor G Ram Reddy – Osmania University
32.   Professor K.K.Mishra – Banaras Hindu University
33.  Prof Meleth Chandrasekharan, Writer, Author
34.  Professor Maduraiveeran – University of Madras
35.  Dr R Radhakrishnan – Asst Professor, Symbiosis University Hyderabad
36.  Professor Ramakrishnan – Madurai Kamaraj University