Chennithala urges intellectuals to reconsider participation in Kerala govt. conference

Congress working committee member Ramesh Chennithala on Sunday (February 8, 2026) issued an open letter addressed to economist Amartya Sen, historian Romila Thapar, World Food Prize Laureate Sakunthala Thilsted, former Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Kanimozhi, appealing to them to reconsider their participation in the International Conference on Development and Democracy being organised by the Kerala government on February 15 at Thiruvananthapuram.

He said that the conference, happening ahead of the Assembly elections, appears less an academic forum and more a carefully choreographed effort aimed at reclaiming moral legitimacy for an incumbent government whose record on democratic freedoms, institutional integrity, and public accountability is under sustained criticism and increasingly viewed as authoritarian.

In the open letter, Mr. Chennithala states that he is writing not as a partisan political voice, but as a concerned citizen and legislator who has long admired the distinguished scholarship, public contributions, and principled commitment to democratic values represented by the invitees. He emphasises that it is precisely because of the immense moral and intellectual authority associated with their presence that he felt compelled to address them publicly after media reports indicated their agreement to participate in the conference.

He warns that the participation of globally respected intellectual figures, irrespective of intent, is likely to be projected as an endorsement of the incumbent regime. According to Mr. Chennithala, images, selective quotations, and curated excerpts will be circulated to create the impression that leading global minds approve of the government’s claims on development and democracy, thereby masking the lived realities experienced by many citizens of Kerala. He states that the political utility of such participation lies in generating moral validation and campaign material for the ruling dispensation’s re-election effort.