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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Anguish over state of nation -Anita Joshua

Anguish over state of nation -Anita Joshua

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published Published on Jun 12, 2017   modified Modified on Jun 12, 2017
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: A group of retired bureaucrats have written an open letter ruing the "rising authoritarianism and majoritarianism" that is choking dissent, and urging public authorities to take "corrective action" to "reclaim and defend the spirit of the Constitution".

"Argumentation and discussion about different perspectives - the lifeblood not only of institutions of learning but of democracy itself -are being throttled," the letter says. "Disagreement and dissent are considered seditious and anti-national. Such attitudes have a chilling impact on free speech and thought."

Most of the 65 former All India Services and Central Civil Services officers from various batches who have signed the letter have held senior posts in the Union and state governments and worked with different political dispensations.

Aware that motives might be imputed to them, they have clarified at the beginning that "as a group, we have no affiliation with any political party but believe in the credo of impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Indian constitution".

Among the signatories are former Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar, former Punjab police chief and ambassador to Romania Julio Ribeiro, former Calcutta Metro general manager Geetha Thoopal, former Bengal chief secretary Ardhendu Sen, former Planning Commission secretary N.C. Saxena, former ambassador to Nepal Deb Mukharji, former chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, former information and broadcasting secretary Bhaskar Ghose, and former health secretary Keshav Desiraju.

While highlighting the "growing climate of religious intolerance that is aimed primarily at Muslims", the letter alludes to one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign speeches in Uttar Pradesh without naming him.

"An odious and frankly communal comparison was made between the relative number of burial grounds and cremation grounds," the letter says.

"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."

Addressing a rally on February 19 at Fatehpur, 150km south of Lucknow, Modi had said: "If a kabristan (graveyard) is built in a village, a smashan (cremation ground) should also be constructed there."

He had added: "If electricity is provided there in Ramazan, it should also be given in Diwali."

The former bureaucrats have cited a range of issues about which they feel a "deep disquiet", from the curbs on bovine slaughter and bullying by cow vigilantes to the throttling of dissent on campuses, crackdown on NGOs and moral policing. "The banning of slaughter-houses targets the minorities and affects their livelihoods as well," they have said.

Their letter refers to the lynching of Mohammed Akhlaque in Uttar Pradesh and of Pehlu Khan in Rajasthan, and the attack on nomadic cowherds in Jammu and Kashmir - all of which happened on the basis of unsubstantiated suspicions relating to cow slaughter.

" Gaurakshaks function with impunity and seem to be doing so with the tacit complicity or active encouragement of (the) state machinery," the letter says.

"The behaviour of vigilantes - who act as if they are prosecutor, judge and executioner rolled into one - flies in the face of law and jurisprudence."

Please click here to read more.

The Telegraph, 12 June, 2017, https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170612/jsp/frontpage/story_156410.jsp#.WT4F7rss1NQ.twitter


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