A group of over 100 retired bureaucrats on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to call for an end to “politics of hate”. They said his “silence, in the face of this enormous societal threat, is deafening”.
In an open letter to Mr. Modi, 108 signatories under the Constitutional Conduct Group highlighted the recent spate of communal tension and actions by the BJP-ruled States against Muslims and other minorities. The letter stated that violence against minorities, particularly Muslims, in the last few months and years in many BJP-ruled States had become more frightening.
“What is alarming now is the subordination of the fundamental principles of our Constitution and of the rule of law to the forces of majoritarianism, in which the State appears to be fully complicit. The hate and malevolence directed against Muslims seems to have embedded itself deep in the recesses of the structures, institutions and processes of governance in the States in which the BJP is in power,” the letter noted.
‘Unprecedented’
The ex-bureaucrats said the threat facing India today was unprecedented and not only was constitutional morality and conduct at risk but “the unique syncretic social fabric” was likely to be torn apart.
“We appeal to your conscience, taking heart from your promise of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas. It is our fond hope that in this year of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, rising above partisan considerations, you will call for an end to the politics of hate that governments under your party’s control are so assiduously practising. The idea of India that our founding fathers had envisioned and fought for needs a climate of fraternity and communal harmony to thrive. Hate will engender hate, rendering the environment too noxious for the idea to survive,” they wrote.
Among the signatories were senior retired IAS, IFS and IPS officers, including former Foreign Secretaries Shivshankar Menon and Sujatha Singh and former Home Secretary G.K. Pillai.
