Your silence is deafening: 108 former bureaucrats write to Modi on ‘politics of hate’

A group of 108 former civil servants on Tuesday have written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling for an end to “politics of hate” that allegedly Bharatiya Janata Party is practising “assiduously”.

The former civil servants in the open letter said, “We are witnessing a frenzy of hate filled destruction in the country where at the sacrificial altar are not just Muslims and members of the other minority communities but the Constitution itself.”

They alleged that in the states in which BJP is in power there have been an escalation of hate violence against the minority communities, particularly Muslims, in the last few years.

“The escalation of hate violence against the minority communities, particularly Muslims, in the last few years and months across several States – Assam, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, all states in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power, barring Delhi (where the union government controls the police) – has acquired a frightening new dimension,” the letter read.

The former bureaucrats said that the hate directed against Muslims 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 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 administration of law, instead of being an instrument for maintaining peace and harmony, has become the means by which the minorities can be kept in a state of perpetual fear,” the letter read.

They further wrote that the “unique syncretic social fabric” which is India’s greatest civilizational inheritance is likely to be torn apart. They further said to PM Modi that his silence, in the face of this enormous societal threat, is deafening

“Prime Minister, we, the members of the Constitutional Conduct Group – all of us are former civil servants who have spent decades in the service of the Constitution – believe that the threat we are facing is unprecedented and at stake is not just constitutional morality and conduct; it is that the unique syncretic social fabric, which is our greatest civilizational inheritance and which our Constitution is so meticulously designed to conserve, is likely to be torn apart. Your silence, in the face of this enormous societal threat, is deafening,” the former civil servants wrote.

They appealed to Modi, urging him to take “heart” from his promise of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’.

“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,” concluded the letter.

Former Secretary, Department of Social Justice Empowerment, Anita Agnihotri, former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, ex-foreign secretary Sujatha Singh, former Home Secretary GK Pillai and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Principal Secretary TKA Nair are among the 108 signatories of the letter.