The new ordinance against unlawful conversion in Uttar Pradesh was being used as a stick to victimise especially the Muslim men and women who dare to exercise their freedom of choice and was “illegal,” a group of 104 retired civil servants have stated. They asked Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to withdraw it.
In a letter to Mr. Adityanath, they noted that in recent years, U.P., “once known as the cradle of the Ganga-Jamuna civilisation, has become the epicentre of the politics of hate, division and bigotry and that the institutions of governance are now steeped in communal poison”.
The signatories included former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon; former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao; retired IPS officer Julio Ribeiro; T.K.A Nair, former adviser to Prime Minister; former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah; former Special Director of CBI K. Saleem Ali; former OSD on Kashmir, Prime Minister’s Office, A.S. Dular; and Former DGP, Bureau of Police Research and Development, Meeran C. Borwankar.
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They said those who have suffered from the “unconstitutional enforcement” of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, be suitably compensated.
While various High Courts, including the Allahabad High Court, have ruled unequivocally that choosing one’s life partner was a fundamental right guaranteed under the Constitution, U.P. was blithely undermining that very Constitution, the letter said.
The vigilantes were acting as a power unto themselves in intimidating innocent Indian citizens, the former civil servants stated.
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“What is worse is that your law enforcement machinery, with the active backing of your government, is playing a role reminiscent of the secret police in authoritarian regimes,” read the letter.
Moradabad case
The civil servants expressed anguish at the Moradabad case in which a Muslim man who had gone to court to register his marriage with a Hindu girl was arrested under the ordinance, while the girl, who was heckled by a right-wing group members, was later sent to a government shelter home where she allegedly suffered a miscarriage.
“What is inexcusable is that the police remained mute as the vigilantes harassed and interrogated the innocent couple. Pinki suffered a miscarriage, possibly as a result of the harassment,” they said.
The policemen who were responsible for allowing this must be called to account under the law, suitably investigated at a senior level of the magistracy and if found to have facilitated the death of the unborn infant, be put to trial under the IPC, they demanded.
The ex-bureaucrats also advised Mr. Adityanath and other politicians in U.P. to “reeducate” themselves on the provisions of the Constitution while stressing that the entire police force of the State “needs to be trained without delay in respecting the rights of all citizens.”