Intellectuals and Public Affairs

It is one thing for intellectuals not to mix into the normal hub of politics, but it is quite another to permit this rapid descent into blackness which is taking away all the most precious gifts of a decent society. One of the most precious gifts is individual freedom. It is therefore appalling to hear every day of men being robbed of their personal and political freedom in the name of the State, but it is even more frightening that no intellectuals are raising their voice in protest, in dissent, against a government policy which is a deliberate misuse of the normal safeguards against an excess of civil liberty. The latest arrests in Gujarat are just one more example of the arbitrary and peremptory methods that the Government has begun to employ, to be rid of elements which it considers undesirable.