Author: Nupur J Sharma
Publication: Opindia.com
Date: December 20, 2018
URL:      https://www.opindia.com/2018/12/analysis-former-ias-officers-write-letter-action-yogi-adityanath-congress-ecosystem-gun-for-prime-minister-modi/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

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Jawhar Sircar (@jawharsircar)
Lesser than those who you protect?
Samjhein? Let law take its course:
Judiciary is beyond Bhakts, except stupid one who talked of peacock!

Ram @ramprasad_c
Jawahar Sircar if not anything, has gone senile. See his tweet below. If in deed Javadekar appointed him, I am guessing he too is going senile.
10:45 PM - Dec 1, 2017
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Another luminary in the list is Shyam Saran who, along with his Pakistan counterpart had wanted to demilitarise Siachen almost giving it away to Pakistan. In fact, Saran was not too happy when that didn’t happen.

With this indicative list of luminaries and several more in the list who we would not delve into right now, it is evident that there is no part of this endeavour which is apolitical or independent. That they oppose Modi’s policies and preferred the lackadaisical Congress is a given and if so, one wonders how they can be touted as a ‘non-partisan’ bunch by the media.

Serial letter-writers
The same group of “independent” “non-partisan” group of babus have launched a crusade against the Modi government time and again. Yet, for some extremely odd reason, they are touted as a bunch of reputed IAS officers who just came together as a calling of their conscience with no political overtones.

Action against Amit Shah for Sabarimala statement

The same group of ex IAS officers, with some officers missing, had penned a letter demanding that action is taken against Amit Shah for his statement on Sabarimala. They sought to invoke action from the Election Commission, Supreme Court, the Prime Minister and the President. Amit Shah, in his Kannur speech, had said that the Supreme Court should have passed an implementable order and that the Communist government of Kerala will get a befitting response, electorally, for their excesses on devotees. They had gone on a tirade calling it unconstitutional and demanded action.

It is to be remembered that the Communist government did indeed heap excesses on the Sabarimala devotees and even gave police protection to a Hindu hating “activist” to desecrate the shrine. In fact, the SC order was widely criticised by many because it failed to differentiate between Abrahamic faiths and the traditions of one Hindu shrine among the crores of deities. State Congress had also, in fact, supported the right of the devotees to preserve their tradition. But the babus wrote a letter to invoke action against Amit Shah. Non-partisan?

Letter to CAG regarding demonetisation and Rafale

Again, the same set of people who came together in June 2017 penned a letter to the CAG saying that the delay in tabling report regarding demonetisation and the Rafale deal is being seen as an attempt to not “embarrass” the NDA government till next year’s general election. This letter was written in November 2018.

It is to be noted here that the Supreme Court subsequently gave a clean chit to the Rafale deal. The Congress cacophony alleging “scam” in Rafale despite analysts, experts and even the Air Force assuring that there has been no “scam”. The French government, the Indian government, Dassault, and their chief had also said the same thing.

In fact, one of the serial letter-writers, ex babu EAS Sarma had penned a separate letter on DailyO about demonetisation and in that letter, he had linked another open letter that he had written.

For a bunch of babus to concern themselves with political rhetoric around demonetisation and Rafale clearly points towards a larger political agenda.

Letter to CJI for a probe in Judge Loya case

Ex-Babus had also written a letter to the Chief Justice of India demanding probe into Judge Loya case. They wrote, “We, the undersigned retired civil servants, would like to place on record our support for the request made by Admiral (Retd.) L.Ramdas to institute a “high-level judicial inquiry” into this matter and urge you to take appropriate action for all the reasons mentioned in his representation”.

It is pertinent to remember here that Judge Loya’s sister had alleged foul play and claimed a media hit-job. His son had, with folded hands, asked the media to leave their family alone since there was no foul play in his father’s death. The Supreme Court itself had said that they can’t take a case seriously which is based on media articles. Indira Jaisingh had to apologise to the court for her outlandish remarks in the case and the “Judicial whistleblowers” used by Congress had a severely tainted past.

Letter defending Urban Naxals

In August 2018, several locations connected with Urban Naxals had been raided. They were alleged to have been involved in inciting the Koregaon-Bhima violence and also, in a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Several material evidence was recovered by the Maharashtra police including email correspondence and startling details of these elements colluding with CPI Maoist cadre to orchestrate attacks on security personnel and even hatching a plot to eliminate the PM. All of them are now in custody.

In connection with this case, the same group of “independent” ex-babus had penned a letter saying that the raiding and arrest of these “activists” was an onslaught on “dissent”.

They had written:

We feel compelled to write an open letter once again – in what we perceive as the most brazen display yet of coercive authority by the State.

The arrests of Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Vernon Gonsalves, Varavara Rao and Arun Ferreira and the raids on the residences of Stan Swamy, Kranti Tekula, Naseem and Anand Teltumbde, all of whom have been been in the forefront of the struggle for justice for Adivasis, Dalits, Muslims, members of the working class and women and children (a struggle which has been a continuing one irrespective of which government has been in power) have been the trigger. They have always used lawful and democratic means in their efforts, and this series of arrests shows how willful and arbitrary the State is to intimidate and silence any signs of dissent and democratic resistance.

Earlier Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, Mahesh Raut, Surendra Gadling and Sudhir Dhawale were also arrested under the same charges for inciting violence in the context of Bhima Koregaon, and the same incident.

They go on to even make an excuse and hold in high regard, Elgaar Parishad.

The excuse for such action hinges on a fabricated tale of a “terror” plot against a high functionary in which these allegedly “urban Naxals” play a role. Incidents quoted refer to the Elgar Parishad held earlier in the year in Pune, of which the highly respected Justice P.B. Sawant (former Supreme Court judge and Chairman of the Press Council) was a key organiser.

it is worthy to note here that even Kolse Patil, a retired judge who spoke extensively on “Hindu Terror” was an organiser of Elgar Parishad. He was also recently accused of sexual harassment. In fact, surrendered Maoist had exclusively told OpIndia that he recognised these “activists” and had even met Arun Ferreira who was a member of the Maoist cadre.

Letter to President about “dangers to the constitution” and “intolerance”
In March 2016, this group of “non-partisan” ex IAS officers had written a letter to the President of India to whine about the “growing intolerance” in the country and the dangers to the constitution. Of course, they didn’t care about the dangers to the constitution when Congress actually used it for the political fascism, however, their concern peaked when Kanhaiya Kumar was “targeted”.

The wrote:

There is a systematic attempt to silence dissent using the outmoded law of sedition against young idealists like Kanhaiya Kumar and his colleagues, who have given India a wake-up call to address poverty and all forms of exploitation.

They also wrote, defending the JNU “bharat tere tukde honge” incident:

Law and order agencies like the Delhi police used doctored videos in a blatantly partisan manner against JNU students while an MLA and certain lawyers – who were widely caught on camera beating up Kanhaiya and journalists – were treated with kid gloves. Even the team of senior lawyers nominated by the Supreme Court to monitor the situation reported the atmosphere of threat and intimidation.

It is worthy to note that Delhi Police had indicted Umar Khalid in the JNU sedition case. It is also noteworthy that the raw footage given by TV channels was found to be authentic by forensic labs in the Kanhaiya Kumar sedition row.

Another letter opposing the ban on illegal slaughterhouses
This letter referred to Prime Minister Modi’s speech in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections.

They had written:

”In Uttar Pradesh, in the run-up to the elections, an odious and frankly communal comparison was made between the relative number of burial grounds and cremation grounds. The question was also asked as to whether electricity was being supplied equally to different communities during their religious festivals. All this without any basis in fact or evidence. The banning of slaughter-houses targets the minorities and affects their livelihoods as well”.

The fallacious arguments in this one paragraph itself point towards the severe political bias of these ex IAS officers.

First, the context itself was incorrect. While Modi stressed on both Hindus and Muslims getting a fair deal, media projected it as if Modi had spoken only about discrimination faced by Hindus. We had exposed this spin here.

The religious discrimination under the Akhilesh government was a fact which was ignored by media and these babus. since 2012 the UP government has allocated Rs 1300 crores for Kabristans. As compared to that, they spent 627 crores on revamping the Smashans. Also interestingly the amount granted for Kabristans rose by 100% as compared to 13.5% for Smashans in 2016-17 that is during the election year hence many might wonder if the UP government was just adding to its long history of minority appeasement.

I had written at the time about the misplaced outrage against the banning of illegal slaughterhouses. It is intriguing that a bunch of babus who spent their lives upholding the law would express outrage over ‘banning’ something illegal. While the dangers of letting illegal slaughterhouses operate are well known, the babus chose to communalise the step simply to pander to their political narrative.

Outraged over MJ Akbar

The same set of babus had written a letter to the President, no less, expressing their outrage over the apparent “lack of action” against MJ Akbar after #MeToo allegations surfaced against him. They had written this letter hours before MJ Akbar resigned. Surprisingly, these babus have not expressed any outrage against the several others accused of sexual misconduct. Only Akbar.

Kathua and Unnao rape cases

The same set of IAS babus had written a letter to the Prime Minister regarding the heinous Kathua and Unnao rape cases. They asserted that India has failed as a nation. They had shamelessly given a political colour to the rapes and said that the Kathua rape was a result of majoritarianism. Their agenda was evident when they expressed no such outrage at the numerous church sex crimes, the ones that happen in Madrasas or even the fact that some of the people who “fought” for justice in the Kathua case were later themselves accused of sexual misconduct.

Another letter about “intolerance”

In January 2018, another letter surfaced written by the same group where they wrote to the Prime Minister about rising intolerance.

The exact same selective quoting of incidents of cow-related violence coupled with them dismissing cases of Love Jihad that the Kerala court once had poses an imminent threat.

Conclusion

Even with the clear political inclinations and motivations of this group of ex IAS officers writing letters constantly, the media seems to be oblivious, or at least, pretends to be oblivious.

Their letters mostly always start with the standard, “We are a group of retired civil servants from the All India and Central Services who, having spent long years in the service of the Constitution of India, have come together to express ourselves on issues of governance and public policy that have a bearing on constitutional principles, conduct and ethics. Since June 2017, when we first came together, we have spoken out on several occasions when we felt that constitutional values were under threat and that it was incumbent on us to voice our concerns publicly. As a group we have no affiliations with any political party nor do we subscribe to any ideology other than the values enshrined in the Constitution”.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the media repeatedly touts these letters with the same disclaimer without so much as connecting the dots and informing people of their clear political bias.

In fact, the usual suspects go a step further to hail them as respected babus who are now just do-gooders following their conscience.

Nidhi Razdan of NDTV, for example, asserts that these men and women don’t favour any political party. That is clearly untrue and the media takes pride in deliberately misleading the people of this country.
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Nidhi Razdan @Nidhi
 And everything is reduced to elections and politics is it? These men and women have served India, not any political party. That you are not alarmed by the state of affairs, where a mob can kill a policeman and the accused still roam free, says something else altogether

Harsh Gupta @harshmadhusudan
I am sure these 80 odd folks can contest coming LS UP elections, and show us how much they represent public opinion. https://twitter.com/Nidhi/status/1075356928094687234 …
6:36 PM - Dec 19, 2018
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Sonia Singh of NDTV, whose husband is a Congress leader also peddled the same narrative.
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sonia singh @soniandtv
 One of India’s most respected civil servants has this to say

NDTV @ndtv
Replying to @ndtv
Chief Minister should resign: Ex-bureaucrats' open letter on Bulandshahr

Former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran on @LRC_NDTV
Watch LIVE now on http://ndtv.com/live   and NDTV 24x7
10:57 PM - Dec 19, 2018
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This entire narrative that is co-ordinated helps the Congress party. For retired IAS officers to help a political party is no sin. It is no sin to support one either. However, for the media and this set of babus to not inform the public of their real intention is dubious and reaks of a political agenda.