New Delhi: Amid the rising hatred and recent cases of communal violence in various parts of the country, over 100 former bureaucrats gave written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to put an end to the 'politics of hate.
Those who signed the letters include national security advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon, ex-foreign secretary Sujatha Singh, former home secretary GK Pillai, former lieutenant governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung, and former PM Manmohan Singh's principal secretary TKA Nair.
In the said letter, these bureaucrats raised concerns about the political situation in the country and said, ''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," they added.
They further have appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to call for an end to the politics of hate.
"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 practicing," the letter read.
Explaining the reason for writing this letter to Prime Minister, they said, ''the relentless pace at which the constitutional edifice created by our founding fathers is being destroyed compels us to speak out and express our anger and anguish."
In the letter, they also highlighted communal violence against minority communities and said, ''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 '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,'' they said.
''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 further.
Mentioning the recent cases where illegal houses in violence-hit areas were demolished, they said, ''No wonder then that the bulldozer has now become the new metaphor for the exercise of political and administrative power, literally and figuratively. The edifice built around the ideas of 'due process and 'rule of law' stands demolished.''
''As the Jahangirpuri incident shows, even the orders of the highest court of the land appear to be treated with scant respect by the executive," they concluded.
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