Don’t let mann ki baat become maun ki baat: Shashi Tharoor to PM Modi

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said people are “deeply disturbed” by the first information report filed against 49 eminent personalities who wrote to the prime minister against mob attacks and lynchings in July.

In a letter posted on Twitter, the parliamentarian from Thiruvananthapuram urged Modi to welcome dissent and assure the country of his commitment to uphold freedom of expression. He asked Modi to take a “public stand” against the FIR filed in Bihar.

“Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution guarantees each and every citizen of India the Fundamental Right to freedom of speech and expression,” Tharoor said in his two-page letter. “We are proud citizens of India and revere the values embedded in its Constitution. As the Prime Minister of our country, we look to you to protect these values.”