We, the undersigned faculty, staff, and students of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) community, are issuing this statement in response to the arrests of, and raids on, human rights activists and academics, in the last week of August 2018.
We believe that democracy thrives when dissent is allowed, and not in an environment of fear and persecution and that “dissent is the safety valve of democracy” as stated by the Supreme Court. The rights set out in the constitution should not be violated for any reason. Freedom of thought, speech, and expression should apply to everybody, including and especially voices of dissent.
Bengaluru Friday, 7rd September 2018
The signatories to this letter (listed in alphabetical order below) have signed this statement in their personal capacities. The statement does not represent the institutional views of IIMB.
Adwitiya Ray
Amrita Yadav
Anand Prahlad
Anubha Dhasmana
Asfia Aejaz
Bhargavi Maity
Deepak Malghan
Deepti
Gopi Sankar Gopi Kuttan
Guruprasad Krishnaraj
Harsh Vora
Hema Swaminathan
Ishan Nag
Jothsna Rajan
Karthick Selvan
Kaushik J
Krishnan TS
Maloth Ramkumar
Manaswini Bhalla
Medha Sravani Boddeda
Megha Rao
Mira Bhakru
Naveen
Nikita Nallamothu
Priyanka Satheesh
Pulkit Chaturvedi
Rahul De
Rajalaxmi Kamath
Rajarshi De
Rajesha
Rajluxmi V Murthy
Rishav Mistry
Ritwik Banerjee
Sachin Arya
Sombuddha De
Sonaj
Sowmya Pal
Srinivasan Raghavan
Sumeet Shilchand Kasture
Supriya Lakhtakia
Tejaswi Shrivastava
Uparna Jayaram
Vaishnav Ritu
Velvan S
Vinay Venumuddala
Vivek
Vivek V