After writers, authors, filmmakers and actors, now our supercool banker, Raghuram Rajan has decided to join the Award Wapsi debate.
Addressing the students at the convocation ceremony at IIT Delhi, the RBI Governor said that excessive political correctness stifles progress as much as excessive licence and disrespect.
This time the governor chose not to speak on the economy, interest rates and banking, as he normally would, but instead spoke on the need to foster an environment in which ideas can flourish.
Giving an anecdote on tolerance, Rajan further said that India’s tradition of debate and an open spirit of enquiry should be encouraged and added that intolerance can take offense out of debate. Once one starts looking for insults, one can find them everywhere, even in the most innocuous statements.
On whether the decision to ban any idea or a particular intellectual position is a good deal for a democracy like us, Rajan said that a quick resort to bans might chill all debate as everyone will be anguished by ideas they dislike. It is far better to improve the environment for ideas through tolerance and mutual respect.
The RBI governor also called for tolerance in the face of provocation saying that one should not be so insecure about one’s ideas that they cannot be subject to challenge.
All the fundamentals who are either in support of Award Wapsi or against it should perhaps lend their ears once to this banker gentleman. What say?