‘Democracy Wall’ painted with ideas an inspiration

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 17

Leading personalities from diverse fields ranging from cinema to politics, journalism, etc reached the Lovely Professional University (LPU) campus on Friday to attend the 9th edition of The Print’s — ‘Democracy Wall’, a free speech campus initiative.

The event commenced with Youth Icon & Bollywood star Ayushmann Khurrana who interacted with the LPU students and inspired them to follow their passion by working hard to achieve what they desire the most. Talking about free speech, he shared that in democracy all were free to speak, but speech had both strength and weakness: “It is just like a sport of table-tennis and we receive the ball as we smash,” he said.

He shared that there was no end to education in any age and hard work was the real password to achieve everything in life. “If you want to do something right, do it now,” he said. In the end of his valuable conversation, Khurrana also sang two of his favourite numbers on LPU students’ persistent requests “Mere Dil Ke Lifafe Me” and “Paani daa rang vekh ke”.

Top Journalist Shekhar Gupta said the event was an initiative where students came out boldly with their individual views. He shared: “We aim to involve students in the finest campuses across India in open dialogues on issues related to free speech and democratic rights with thought leaders and prominent, successful, mostly young people from diverse fields.”

Other than actor Khurrana, there was an astral list of eminent speakers and performers at the event including MP Bhagwant Mann, PWD & IT Minister with Punjab Government Vijay Inder Singla, top Journalist Shekhar Gupta, Social Activist & Researcher Arnika Singh, rapper Feyago and stand-up comedian Abijit Ganguly from Kolkata.

Politician, social worker, comedian, singer and an actor Bhagwant Mann inspired the students to be always socially active.

In his famous satirical and amusing way, he guided the students to bring “A new mechanism of governance and model of development. Keep in mind that all ‘Grassrooters go up, parachuters go only down.’ Be a master of your own field.”

‘Democracy Wall highlights the idea of “free speech and meaningful engagement with governance, politics and society” to India’s most vibrant campuses.