New Delhi: A group of 102 former civil servants on November 28 wrote an open letter to Indian citizens, criticising the recent statements made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other high-ranking officials about the country’s civil society.
“Civil society is viewed through an adversarial prism today. Any entity, which dares to highlight deviations from the norms of Constitutional conduct, or question the arbitrary exercise of executive authority, runs the risk of being projected as a foreign agent and enemy of the people. At a systemic level, the financial viability of civil society organisations is being progressively undermined by tweaking the legal framework governing foreign contributions, deployment of corporate social responsibility funds and income tax exemptions,” the statement said.
The signatories, under the Constitutional Conduct Group, include former civil servants Anita Agnihotri, Gurjit Singh Cheema, A.S. Dulat, K.P. Fabian, Wajahat Habibullah, Harsh Mander, F.T.R. Colaso and Mira Pande.
The former civil servants noted the statements made by Justice (retd.) Arun Mishra, chair of National Human Rights Commission, who asserted that “India’s creditable record on human rights was being tarnished at the behest of international forces”.
Also read: ‘New Norm to Accuse India of Human Rights Violations’: NHRC Chair and Ex-SC Judge Arun Mishra
“The Prime Minister, on his part, discerned a political agenda in what he felt was selective perception of human rights violation in certain incidents, while overlooking certain others. And quite shockingly, General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Defence Staff, gave a fillip to the growing menace of vigilantism by endorsing the killing of persons believed to be terrorists by lynch mobs in Kashmir,” the statement said.
The signatories took on National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, who said “the new frontiers of war is the civil society, which can be manipulated to hurt a nation’s interests”. He was addressing the passing out parade of IPS probationers at the National Police Academy in Hyderabad.
“Earlier, the term “Urban Naxal” was being used to denigrate individual human rights activists. Clearly, under the New Doval Doctrine, people like Father Stan Swamy would become the arch enemy of the Indian state and the prime concern and target of its security forces,” the statement said.
The full statement and list of signatories have been republished below.
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Dear fellow citizens,
We are a group of former civil servants of the All India and Central Services who have worked with the Central and State Governments in the course of our careers. As a group, we have no affiliation with any political party but believe in impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Constitution of India.
A disturbing trend in the direction of the country’s governance has become discernible over the past few years. The foundational values of our republic and the cherished norms of governance, which we had taken as immutable, have been under the relentless assault of an arrogant, majoritarian state. The sacrosanct principles of secularism and human rights have come to acquire a pejorative sense. Civil society activists striving to defend these principles are subjected to arrest and indefinite detention under draconian laws that blot our statute book. The establishment does its best to discredit them as anti-national and foreign agents.
Civil society, a diverse mass of formal and informal groups pursuing their own interests, occupies the vast democratic space outside of government and business. As the locus of critique, contestation and negotiation, it is an important stakeholder in governance, as well as a force multiplier and partner in the project of meeting popular aspirations. But civil society is viewed through an adversarial prism today. Any entity, which dares to highlight deviations from the norms of Constitutional conduct, or question the arbitrary exercise of executive authority, runs the risk of being projected as a foreign agent and enemy of the people. At a systemic level, the financial viability of civil society organisations is being progressively undermined by tweaking the legal framework governing foreign contributions, deployment of corporate social responsibility funds and income tax exemptions.
Our anxiety with regard to the articulation of the state-civil society interface has been heightened in recent weeks by statements emanating from high dignitaries of the state. On the occasion of the Foundation Day of the National Human Rights Commission, its Chair, Justice (retd.) Arun Mishra, asserted that India’s creditable record on human rights was being tarnished at the behest of international forces. The Prime Minister, on his part, discerned a political agenda in what he felt was selective perception of human rights violation in certain incidents, while overlooking certain others. And quite shockingly, General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Defence Staff, gave a fillip to the growing menace of vigilantism by endorsing the killing of persons believed to be terrorists by lynch mobs in Kashmir.
Taken together, these portents indicate a deliberate strategy to deny civil society the space and wherewithal for its operation. The contours of this strategy have now been revealed in the New Doval Doctrine propounded by the National Security Adviser (NSA).
Reviewing the passing out parade of IPS probationers at the National Police Academy in Hyderabad, Shri Ajit Doval proclaimed:
“The new frontiers of war, what you call the fourth- generation warfare, is the civil society. Wars have ceased to become an effective instrument for achieving political or military objectives. They are too expensive and unaffordable and, at the same time, there is uncertainty about their outcome. But it is the civil society that can be subverted, that can be suborned, that can be divided, that can be manipulated to hurt the interests of a nation. You are there to see that they stand fully protected.”
Instead of exhorting the IPS probationers to abide by the values enshrined in the Constitution to which they had sworn allegiance, the NSA stressed the primacy of the representatives of the people, and the laws framed by them.
It would be pertinent to recall here that the term “fourth-generation warfare” is normally employed in relation to a conflict where the state is fighting non-state actors, such as terror groups and insurgents. Civil society now finds itself placed in this company. Earlier, the term “Urban Naxal” was being used to denigrate individual human rights activists. Clearly, under the New Doval Doctrine, people like Father Stan Swamy would become the arch enemy of the Indian state and the prime concern and target of its security forces.
The NSA’s clarion call for an onslaught on a demonised civil society is of a piece with the narrative of hate targeting defenders of Constitutional values and human rights that is regularly purveyed by the high and mighty in the establishment.
The defining traits of the current dispensation are hubris and an utter disregard of democratic norms. These were manifest in the steamrolling of a discriminatory Citizenship (Amendment) Act through Parliament, its linkage with the National Register of Citizens, and the ruthless suppression of the spontaneous protests that erupted in various parts of the country.
The same traits were in evidence in the enactment of a set of three farm laws without public debate, stakeholder consultations or endorsement by alliance partners, and the high-handed treatment accorded to the agitated farmers encamped at the gates of Delhi. Their heroic resistance over fourteen months elicited the choicest of epithets from the establishment. Dubbed variously as “Andolanjeevis” (professional agitators), “Left-wing extremists” and “Khalistanis”, they were accused of working at the behest of “Foreign Destructive Ideology”, in a bizarre word-play with the acronym FDI referring to Foreign Direct Investment. Electoral compulsions might have led the Prime Minister to announce the decision to repeal the hated laws, but the damage done to the nation’s polity and social fabric will be hard to repair.
Let us hope that the government will realize the pitfalls of demonising dissent and trying to suppress civil resistance by brute force. It is also hoped that the alumni of the National Police Academy, or indeed our security forces in general, will not be swayed by the NSA’s rhetoric and remember that their primary duty is to uphold Constitutional values, which override the will of the political executive. Even the laws framed by the legislatures have to be tested on the touchstone of constitutionality and accepted by the people. If this fundamental principle is not accepted, we may turn to the well-known satirical poem “The Solution”, written in a different context by the famous German playwright Bertolt Brecht, which concludes with the following words:
Would it not in that case be simpler
for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
SATYAMEVA JAYATE
(102 signatories, at pages 4-8 below)
| Anita Agnihotri | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Social Justice Empowerment, GoI | |
| Salahuddin Ahmad | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan | |
| S.P. Ambrose | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Secretary, Ministry of Shipping & Transport, GoI | |
| Anand Arni | RAS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI | |
| Vappala Balachandran | IPS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI | |
| Gopalan Balagopal | IAS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal | |
| Chandrashekhar Balakrishnan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Coal, GoI | |
| T.K. Banerji | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Union Public Service Commission | |
| Sharad Behar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh | |
| Aurobindo Behera | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Odisha | |
| Madhu Bhaduri | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Portugal | |
| Meeran C Borwankar | IPS (Retd.) | Former DGP, Bureau of Police Research and Development, GoI | |
| Ravi Budhiraja | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, GoI | |
| Sundar Burra | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra | |
| R. Chandramohan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Secretary, Transport and Urban Development, Govt. of NCT of Delhi | |
| Rachel Chatterjee | IAS (Retd.) | Former Special Chief Secretary, Agriculture, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh | |
| Kalyani Chaudhuri | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal | |
| Gurjit Singh Cheema | IAS (Retd.) | Former Financial Commissioner (Revenue), Govt. of Punjab | |
| F.T.R. Colaso | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Karnataka & former Director General of Police, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir | |
| Anna Dani | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra | |
| Surjit K. Das | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Uttarakhand | |
| Vibha Puri Das | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GoI | |
| P.R. Dasgupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Food Corporation of India, GoI | |
| Pradeep K. Deb | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Deptt. Of Sports, GoI | |
| Nitin Desai | Former Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, GoI | ||
| M.G. Devasahayam | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana | |
| Sushil Dubey | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Sweden | |
| A.S. Dulat | IPS (Retd.) | Former OSD on Kashmir, Prime Minister’s Office, GoI | |
| K.P. Fabian | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Italy | |
| Prabhu Ghate | IAS (Retd.) | Former Addl. Director General, Department of Tourism, GoI | |
| Gourisankar Ghosh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Mission Director, National Drinking Water Mission, GoI | |
| Suresh K. Goel | IFS (Retd.) | Former Director General, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, GoI | |
| S. Gopal | IPS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, GoI | |
| S.K. Guha | IAS (Retd.) | Former Joint Secretary, Department of Women & Child Development, GoI | |
| H.S. Gujral | IFoS (Retd.) | Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Govt. of Punjab | |
| Meena Gupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI | |
| Ravi Vira Gupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India | |
| Wajahat Habibullah | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, GoI and former Chief Information Commissioner | |
| Deepa Hari | IRS (Resigned) | ||
| Sajjad Hassan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Commissioner (Planning), Govt. of Manipur | |
| Kamal Jaswal | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI | |
| Brijesh Kumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI | |
| Ish Kumar | IPS (Retd.) | Former DGP (Vigilance & Enforcement), Govt. of Telangana and former Special Rapporteur, National Human Rights Commission | |
| Sudhir Kumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Central Administrative Tribunal | |
| Subodh Lal | IPoS (Resigned) | Former Deputy Director General, Ministry of Communications, GoI | |
| Harsh Mander | IAS (Retd.) | Govt. of Madhya Pradesh | |
| Amitabh Mathur | IPS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI | |
| L.L. Mehrotra | IFS (Retd.) | Former Special Envoy to the Prime Minister and former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, GoI | |
| Aditi Mehta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan | |
| Shivshankar Menon | IFS (Retd.) | Former Foreign Secretary and Former National Security Adviser | |
| Sonalini Mirchandani | IFS (Resigned) | GoI | |
| Malay Mishra | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Hungary | |
| Sunil Mitra | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoI | |
| Noor Mohammad | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority, GoI | |
| Avinash Mohananey | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Sikkim | |
| Satya Narayan Mohanty | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission | |
| Deb Mukharji | IFS (Retd.) | Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and former Ambassador to Nepal | |
| Shiv Shankar Mukherjee | IFS (Retd.) | Former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom | |
| Gautam Mukhopadhaya | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Myanmar | |
| Pranab S. Mukhopadhyay | IAS (Retd.) | Former Director, Institute of Port Management, GoI | |
| Nagalsamy | IA&AS (Retd.) | Former Principal Accountant General, Tamil Nadu & Kerala | |
| Sobha Nambisan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Secretary (Planning), Govt. of Karnataka | |
| P.A. Nazareth | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Egypt and Mexico | |
| P. Joy Oommen | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Chhattisgarh | |
| Amitabha Pande | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI | |
| Mira Pande | IAS (Retd.) | Former State Election Commissioner, West Bengal | |
| Maxwell Pereira | IPS (Retd.) | Former Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi | |
| Alok Perti | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Coal, GoI | |
| R. Poornalingam | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, GoI | |
| Rajesh Prasad | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to the Netherlands | |
| R.M. Premkumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra | |
| N.K. Raghupathy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Staff Selection Commission, GoI | |
| V.P. Raja | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission | |
| K. Sujatha Rao | IAS (Retd.) | Former Health Secretary, GoI | |
| M.Y. Rao | IAS (Retd.) | ||
| Prasadranjan Ray | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairperson, West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission | |
| Satwant Reddy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Chemicals and Petrochemicals, GoI | |
| Vijaya Latha Reddy | IFS (Retd.) | Former Deputy National Security Adviser, GoI | |
| Julio Ribeiro | IPS (Retd.) | Former Adviser to Governor of Punjab & former Ambassador to Romania | |
| Aruna Roy | IAS (Resigned) | ||
| Manabendra N. Roy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal | |
| A.K. Samanta | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police (Intelligence), Govt. of West Bengal | |
| Deepak Sanan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Adviser (AR) to Chief Minister, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh | |
| G. Sankaran | IC&CES (Retd.) | Former President, Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal | |
| S. Satyabhama | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairperson, National Seeds Corporation, GoI | |
| N.C. Saxena | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Planning Commission, GoI | |
| A. Selvaraj | IRS (Retd.) | Former Chief Commissioner, Income Tax, Chennai, GoI | |
| Ardhendu Sen | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal | |
| Abhijit Sengupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI | |
| Aftab Seth | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Japan | |
| Ashok Kumar Sharma | IFoS (Retd.) | Former MD, State Forest Development Corporation, Govt. of Gujarat | |
| Ashok Kumar Sharma | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Finland and Estonia | |
| Navrekha Sharma | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Indonesia | |
| Raju Sharma | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh | |
| Tara Ajai Singh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka | |
| Tirlochan Singh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, National Commission for Minorities, GoI | |
| Parveen Talha | IRS (Retd.) | Former Member, Union Public Service Commission | |
| P.S.S. Thomas | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission | |
| Hindal Tyabji | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary rank, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir | |
| Ashok Vajpeyi | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi | |
| Ramani Venkatesan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Director General, YASHADA, Govt. of Maharashtra | |
| Rudi Warjri | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica |