Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on Saturday said all non-communal, non-Bharatiya Janata Party forces should come together for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, PTI reported. Addressing a discussion in Kolkata on where the Indian democracy is heading, Sen said the minorities and the liberal forces in the country will need to be more vocal and assertive.

“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,” Sen said, according to PTI.

The economist said a party with “ill motives” came to power in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, after securing 31% of total votes and 55% of seats.

Sen said all political questions do not surround left-and-right-wing ideologies. “We have many reasons to join hands with other people who are not really leftists,” Sen said, according to IANS. “But one thing must be made clear that joining hands doesn’t mean that two parties forming an alliance must give consent to all views of each other. One needs to fight against the divisive politics and the minority treatment.”

Opposition alliance can be formed before 2019: Chidambaram

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday said that a formidable alliance of Opposition parties can come together in the upcoming General Elections to defeat the BJP and free India from the “reign of fear”.

“The Dalits live in fear, the Muslims live in fear, the women live in fear, the press live in fear,” the former finance minister told PTI in an interview. “We are moving away from the accepted democratic rights and democratic positions. This is a dangerous trend for the country... Let us form the alliance and let the elections take place. All of you want to know the answer even before the script is written.”

He said the most important topic on which all Opposition parties agree is that the BJP should be defeated.