‘Need to get in touch with public to save democracy’

New Delhi: Former JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar on Friday said there was a need to get in touch with public and unite them through communication to save the democracy.

Mr Kumar was speaking at an event ‘Building An Inclusive India Citizens Conclave’ on the topic titled ‘Democracy and Dissent’.

“We have to get in touch with public and unite them. The first mode of communication is through language. There is so much ignorance among the public, because one feels that even if he is ignorant, he can still make it big. Even they are ‘bhakts’, instead of ignoring them we have to communicate to save the democracy,” he said. Independent researcher Usha Ramanathan said, “In a democracy like India, the UIDAI project was depriving people of their rights just because they do not clear the biometric test. It doesn’t produce an identity to us, instead it profiles us as fake profile. If a biometric  system does not work, you are not you.”

Various other speakers, including activist Jagmati Sangwan, documentary filmmaker Saba Dewan, retired IPS officer Meeran Chadha Borwankar and journalists Rajdeep Sardesai and Siddharth Varadarajan took part in the event.

The three-day event that began on Friday to mark the launch of ‘India Inclusive’, an informal open platform that offers citizens and civil society across the country to network and preserve constitutional values.

The topics that would be focussed during the event are silencing the media, attack on rationalists and human resource development Society’s, pluralism, diversity and culture, among others.