Ex-bureaucrats write with 'hope PM Modi will act on politics of hate'

New Delhi: A group of over 100 retired bureaucrats Tuesday has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the hope that he will call for an end to what they termed as "politics of hate" allegedly practised "assiduously" by governments under the BJP's control.

They said his "silence, in the face of this enormous societal threat, is deafening".

In an open letter to Mr. Modi, they 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".

The 108 signatories under the Constitutional Conduct Group highlighted the recent spate of communal tension and actions by the BJP-ruled States against Muslims and other minorities.

Former Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung, 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.

The letter stated that violence against minorities, particularly Muslims, in the last few months and years in the many BJP-ruled States had become more frightening.

"What is alarming now is the subordination of the fundamental principles of our Constitution and of the rule of law to the forces of majoritarianism, in which the State appears to be fully complicit. The hate and malevolence directed against Muslims seem 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 letter noted.

The ex-bureaucrats said the threat facing India today was unprecedented and not only was constitutional morality and conduct at risk but "the unique syncretic social fabric" was likely to be torn apart.

"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," they wrote.