PRESS CONFERENCE
Assault on Reason – The Re-writing of History

Systematic attacks on rational and independent thinking, as manifest in the recent killing of DrKalburgi, combined with the dubious efforts to re-write Indian history as can be seen in the re-naming of public roads and streets, need to be seen as part of the majoritarian and communal agenda of the NDA II government. They are part of a trend that began in 1999 with the Value Education syllabus sought to be introduced by the then NDA I government.

Scholars, academics, artists, writers and activists will address a Press Conference organised by SAHMAT condemning this dangerous trend, a reflection of a serious erosion of overall democratic space. These attacks, driven by the sectarian and anti-Constitutional agenda of the RashtriyaSwayamsevakSangh(RSS), began a few months ago when names of roads in Delhi were blackened anonymously. One of the roads thus blackened was SafdarHashmi Marg. A delegation of the RSS’sShikshaBachaoAndolanSamiti (SBAS) headed by DinanathBatra has reportedly met the MOS Home Rijju, demanding that all roads and public spaces named after Mughal kings or those of the Delhi Sultanate should be re-named.

In view of this growing communalisation of the public space, SAHMAT has organised a Press Conference at the Press Club of India, New Delhi.

Speakers: Professor IrfanHabib, Anil Nauriya, TeestaSetalvad, PrabhatPatnaik, among others