[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ur group of retired civil servants has, over the past year, drawn the attention of the powers that be, particularly the Government of India, to the promotion of an environment that encourages violence, in both word and deed. Apart from reckless utterances at election times aimed at fostering a feeling of hate and enmity in the majority community about the “other”, a number of other specific instances have highlighted the horrifying apathy, if not implicit support, of various governments, at the central and state levels, to vigilante violence directed against individuals of specific communities. But what has been even more mind-numbing has been the open challenge to the rule of law by those entrusted with its protection.
The latest happening at Hazaribagh has been especially shattering for our group, coming as it did from a member of the Union Council of Ministers. Those convicted of the brutal lynching last year at Ramgarh (Jharkhand) are entitled to the due process of law, including getting bail pending a decision of the High Court on their conviction. It was, however, most unseemly of the Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Shri Jayant Sinha, to felicitate the convicts as though they were some revolutionaries in a freedom struggle. His subsequent feeble justifications on social media do not hold water. If he genuinely felt that the law should take its course, prudence (if not humanity) dictated that he should have been circumspect in his actions. We strongly condemn his action, which amounts to showing contempt for the rule of law and the Constitution of India, which he is duty bound to uphold.
The latest episode comes on the heels of repeated incidents which highlight the contempt which representatives of the ruling party and their followers have for the rule of law. Whether it is the act of a Union Minister draping the body of a riot accused in the national tricolour, the instigation by ruling party ministers of Jammu & Kashmir in the Kathua rape case or the efforts to subvert due process of law in the brutal Rajsamand murder case, all such cases only indicate a majoritarian mindset that believes it is entitled to use the law to meet its own narrow ends. The larger and chilling message that Shri Sinha’s action sends out is that there is a license to kill minorities and that those who are accused of such crimes will be enthusiastically supported financially, legally and politically.
In the past, when there were protests against partisan support for such revolting actions, the central government conveniently used the fig leaf of constitutional separation of powers to argue that the locus standi lay with the concerned states, despite most of these states being ruled by the same party which was in power at the centre. Now that a Union Minister has openly questioned a criminal case where his own party government in the state had, admirably in our opinion, prosecuted and brought to justice the accused, we would like to know what stand the Government of India proposes to take.
We demand the immediate resignation/removal of Shri Jayant Sinha from the Council of Ministers and an apology to the people of India from the party he represents for brazenly sympathizing with those convicted of murder. We also urge our colleagues in the civil services to firmly adhere to the rule of law and not be intimidated by the actions of powerful and influential groups which seek to spread the poison of disharmony and enmity in our multicultural society.
1. Salahuddin Ahmad
IAS (Retd.)
Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan
2. G. Balachandhran
IAS (Retd.)
Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
3. Vappala Balachandran
IPS (Retd.)
Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI
4. Gopalan Balagopal
IAS (Retd.)
Former Special Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
5. Chandrashekhar Balakrishnan
IAS (Retd.)
Former Secretary, Coal, GoI
6. Dr. Pradip Bhattacharya
IAS (Retd.)
Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
7. Meeran C Borwankar
IPS (Retd.)
Former DGP, Bureau of Police Research and Development, GoI
8. Sundar Burra
IAS (Retd.)
Former Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra
9. Kalyani Chaudhuri
IAS (Retd.)
Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
10. Anna Dani
IAS (Retd.)
Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra
11. Vibha Puri Das
IAS (Retd.)
Former Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GoI
12. Nareshwar Dayal
IFS (Retd.)
Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
13. Keshav Desiraju
IAS (Retd.)
Former Health Secretary, GoI
14. M.G. Devasahayam
IAS (Retd.)
Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana
15. Tuktuk Ghosh
IAS (Retd.)
Former Special Secretary and Financial Adviser, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Shipping & Tourism, GoI
16. Meena Gupta
IAS (Retd.)
Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI
17. Ravi Vira Gupta
IAS (Retd.)
Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India
18. Wajahat Habibullah
IAS (Retd.)
Former Secretary, GoI and Chief Information Commissioner
19. Sajjad Hassan
IAS (Retd.)
Former Commissioner (Planning), Govt. of Manipur
20. Dr. M.A. Ibrahimi
IAS (Retd.)
Former Chief Secretary (rank), Govt. of Bihar
21. Kamal Jaswal
IAS (Retd.)
Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI
22. Ajai Kumar
Indian Forest Service (Retd.)
Former Director, Ministry of Agriculture, GoI
23. Arun Kumar
IAS (Retd.)
Former Chairman, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, GoI
24. Brijesh Kumar
IAS (Retd.)
Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI
25. Harsh Mander
IAS (Retd.)
Govt. of Madhya Pradesh
26. Aditi Mehta
IAS (Retd.)
Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan
27. Deb Mukharji
IFS (Retd.)
Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and Ambassador to Nepal
28. Nagalswamy
IA&AS (Retd.)
Former Principal Accountant General, Tamil Nadu & Kerala
29. Sobha Nambisan
IAS (Retd.)
Former Principal Secretary (Planning), Govt. of Karnataka
30. Amitabha Pande
IAS (Retd.)
Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI
31. Alok Perti
IAS (Retd.)
Former Secretary, Ministry of Coal, GoI
32. T.R. Raghunandan
IAS (Retd.)
Former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, GoI
33. N.K. Raghupathy
IAS (Retd.)
Former Chairman, Staff Selection Commission, GoI
34. Julio Ribeiro
IPS (Retd.)
Former Adviser to Governor of Punjab & Ambassador to Romania
35. Manabendra N. Roy
IAS (Retd.)
Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
36. Deepak Sanan
IAS (Retd.)
Former Principal Adviser (AR) to Chief Minister, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh
37. Umrao Salodia
IAS (Retd.)
Former Chairman, Rajasthan Road Transport Corporation, Govt. of Rajasthan
38. N.C. Saxena
IAS (Retd.)
Former Secretary, Planning Commission, GoI
39. Ardhendu Sen
IAS (Retd.)
Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
40. Abhijit Sengupta
IAS (Retd.)
Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI
41. Raju Sharma
IAS (Retd.)
Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh
42. Jawhar Sircar
IAS (Retd.)
Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI, & CEO, Prasar Bharati
43. Ramani Venkatesan
IAS (Retd.)
Former Director General, YASHADA, Govt. of Maharashtra
44. Aruna Roy
Co-founder, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan; former member, National Advisory Council; campaigner, Right to Information
45. MY Ray
46. Sushil Dubey
