Model Answer:

• Dissent refers to the act of disagreeing with someone / over something leading to a debate. In an ideal scenario, the ultimate goal is to help understand each other’s position even if a consensus is not reached. Dissent is about “showing new perspectives”.
• Dissent is one of the foundations of democracy. The idea of democracy being a political association where everyone has a say cannot be achieved by dissent. Dissent is about showing new perspectives. If everyone has a say it is bound to lead to dissent and new debates. These disagreements can only be resolved via deliberations.
• At its helm, democracies have law making institutions – the Parliament – which are houses of deliberation. In them every effort is made to accommodate dissenting views.
• In India, we are witnessing a stifling of dissent at many levels. At societal level – there are reports of people taking the law in their own hands and killing people if suspected of beef trade. Lynching on the basis of rumours as seen in the North-East. Perhaps the biggest example of stifling of dissent is the murder of rationalist leaders Kalburgi and others. At the government level, we see unwillingness of both the government and opposition to resolve their issues.
• These are neither suggestive of our past cultural values of assimilation and tolerance nor of a confident democracy aiming to take a global seat.
• Voltaire had remarked – I might disapprove of what you say but defend to death your right to say so. We as individuals, society and a country have to realize this.