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Dissent is today being labelled as anti-national. The essence of freedom and democracy is dissent. In countries that say there is no dissent, there is no freedom, said P Chidambaram, former Finance Minister.
As public space and dissent shrinks, it is important that some people should stand up and say, “it is my right to speak. It is my right to debate and it is my right to dissent. Among them in the forefront are those, who the people have decided to sit in the Opposition,” he said at a function to mark the launch of his book Fearless in Opposition: Power and Accountability organised by the Madras Management Association on Saturday.
The book is a collection of Chidambaram’s articles that appeared in his weekly column in The New Indian Express .
“People have decided that my party, and therefore me, will sit in the Opposition. It is my duty to provoke debate without bitterness and to engage the government and dissent what I feel strongly. That’s the purpose of the column. I want to influence decision makers without being disrespectful to them. I want to shape policy from the Opposition’s ranks,” he said.
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