Dissent and noise are essential elements for an effective democracy: Fali Nariman tells President

Senior advocate Fali Nariman said on Thursday that dissent and noise were essential elements for an effective democracy. Nariman was speaking at a book launch event in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, reported Hindustan Times. “There is an increasing impression that only if executive power is centralised on one person, from this there will be change, unity. I disagree,” HT quoted Nariman as saying. [caption id=“attachment_2718508” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Fali Nariman said that dissent was essential for a democracy. IBNLive[/caption] He also said that any other system of governance necessarily led to “arrogance, autocracy and dictatorship”. “Noise with resultant chaos, we have to accept in a parliamentary system of democracy, because any other system necessarily leads to arrogance of power, autocracy and dictatorship which has to be avoided at all costs,” Indian Express quoted Nariman as saying. He also said that veiled attempts by the government to interfere with democracy by making amendments to the Constitution will be a “disaster”. “Mr President, I believe that all of us, and you above all, must guard against this and I must express this mortal fear of mine openly to the person best positioned to receive it,” the report further quoted him as saying. Fali Nariman’s statements come at a time when yet another series of protests have erupted at a university in India over the debate about nationalism. Tension started brewing inside the NIT campus , located at the banks of famous Dal lake, last week after India lost to West Indies in semi-final in the T-20 cricket tournament prompting some local students to rejoice and burst crackers. This led to protest by outstation students resulting in clashes. Since 31 March night, the situation inside the campus has been volatile and the authorities had posted personnel from Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB). The local police was manning the main gate of the institute. The developments prompted the NIT authorities to close the campus on Saturday but it was reopened on Monday. The outstation students also tried to march out of the campus saying they wanted to return to their homes. (With inputs from PTI)