'Democracy is in danger,' says Amartya Sen

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has said "democracy is in danger" in the country and that non-BJP, non-communal forces should join hands to fight the 2019 elections. 

He added that the Left should not hesitate to join forces with such an opposition. 

Sen made his comments in Kolkata on Saturday. Sen was at a question and answer session called "Bharat kon Pathe?" (Which way is India Heading?).

"We must express our opposition to autocracy, we must fight against their autocratic trends, we must criticise the issues where we need to oppose the non-communal right wing forces, but we must not take back our hands when it comes to fighting communalism which is the biggest threat," PTI quoted Sen as saying. 

He added however that the situation could be saved. 

"I think democracy is in danger but we can do rectification. If we say democracy is under threat, we can be beaten up by some people. But still we, the people, can do the rectification. It is not like a sinking boat which we all should abandon," Sen said. 

Sen also refered to Jawaharlal Nehru Univerity as a paralled to what he said was happening in the country. 

"Some students had been taken to custody in JNU on charge of sedition in past, a charge which had not been proved in any case. They were beaten up in custody which was against any law. It is not fathomable how they were charged under sedition," Sen said. 

"We had all seen how an illegal act was committed and there was no fair justice. Till now, there was no proof of sedition charge. This time it was faced by students. But this can be faced by any citizen of this country," Sen added. 

(With inputs from PTI)