A growing politics of intolerance

by Nalin Mehta, Mumbai Mirror, 19 Jul 2010.

We make a great deal about India being the world's largest democracy but the fact is that the moderate space for dissent may actually be shrinking in our increasingly intolerant society. After independence, Nehru went out of his way – despite a life-long history of political animosity – to back Ambedkar as the architect of the Constitution and then appointed him Law Minister. Even when Ambedkar quit the government and subsequently lost a Lok Sabh election to the Congress, historical records indicate that Nehru quietly encouraged local Congress bigwigs to help his eventual election to the Rajya Sabha election from Mumbai. Though Ambedkar's views were anathema to much of the Brahmin-dominated Congress, Nehru recognised the value of protecting alternative points of view in a liberal polity.