11 June, 2020
Dear friends in the media,
On March 22, 2020, 95 retired civil servants belonging to the Constitutional Conduct Group wrote an Open Letter “In defence of Harsh Mander” regarding the mischaracterization of his speech at Jamia Millia Islamia on December 16, 2019. In the letter (attached), we had said: “ …Harsh Mander, as a public-spirited citizen of India, had filed a petition before the Honourable Supreme Court in connection with the registering of F.I.R.s against certain political leaders for using hate speech and inciting violence that resulted in the deaths of more than 50 people in Delhi.” Instead of responding to those specific allegations, the Solicitor General of India alleged that Harsh had both incited violence and been contemptuous of the Supreme Court (SC) in that speech.
In our letter, we had pointed out how a selectively edited video was used in the affidavit of the Deputy Commissioner of Police filed before the SC. We argued that if the full video had been presented, it would have proved that neither had he incited violence nor had he been contemptuous of the SC. Citing excerpts from the speech, we said that it had to be read in context, in sequence and in full to appreciate its true exhortations. The following extract makes clear his philosophy: “ We have learnt from Gandhi ji how to respond to violence and injustice. We will fight with non-violence. Anyone who instigates you toward violence or hatred, they are not your friends.” Regarding the allegation that he was contemptuous of the SC, it is clear that it is baseless because all he did was to say:” Which is the place in which this fight will eventually be decided? That is in our hearts, in my heart, in your heart, we have to give a response – if they want to fill our hearts with hate, if we respond with hate, hatred will become deeper”. (Unedited video record of speech at https://youtu.be/yXS2MvqXNsM and transcripts in English and Hindi attached.)
We have learnt that the Delhi Police has filed a charge sheet (also attached) in the Dayalbagh Ankit Sharma murder case. The early paras indicate the continued position of the Delhi police, claiming that his Jamia speech on December 16 was a hate speech instigating people to violence and against the SC. They write that he used a facade of peace but it was a hate speech! The other two charged with hate speech here are Sharjeel and Azad. This indicates the story that they are trying to build up for the larger conspiracy. It is likely that they will become co-accused in this way in many or all the riot cases, in addition to the conspiracy case.
We are writing to you to please consider whether you can bring to the notice of the general public the continued misrepresentation and mischaracterization of his speech at Jamia Millia on December 16, 2019, and the possible misuse of law against a champion of non-violence and believer in the rule of law. In the meanwhile, those political leaders who publicly used hate speech and incited violence roam free with impunity.
SATYAMEVA JAYATE
Yours sincerely,
Constitutional Conduct Group (with 94 signatures as below)
| Name | Service | Last post/designation before retirement | |
| 1. | Anita Agnihotri | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Social Justice Empowerment, GoI |
| 2. | Salahuddin Ahmad | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan |
| 3. | S.P. Ambrose
|
IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Secretary, Ministry of Shipping & Transport, GoI |
| 4. | G. Balachandhran
|
IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 5. | Vappala Balachandran | IPS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 6. | Gopalan Balagopal | IAS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 7. | Chandrashekhar Balakrishnan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Coal, GoI |
| 8. | Sharad Behar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 9. | Aurobindo Behera | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Odisha |
| 10. | Madhu Bhaduri | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Portugal |
| 11. | Meeran C Borwankar | IPS (Retd.) | Former DGP, Bureau of Police Research and Development, GoI |
| 12. | Ravi Budhiraja | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, GoI |
| 13. | Sundar Burra | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 14. | R. Chandramohan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Secretary, Transport and Urban Development, Govt. of NCT of Delhi
|
| 15. | Rachel Chatterjee | IAS (Retd.) | Former Special Chief Secretary, Agriculture, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh |
| 16. | Kalyani Chaudhuri | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 17. | Anna Dani | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 18. | Surjit K. Das | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Uttarakhand |
| 19. | Vibha Puri Das | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GoI |
| 20. | P.R. Dasgupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Food Corporation of India, GoI |
| 21. | Pradeep K. Deb | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Deptt. Of Sports, GoI |
| 22. | Nitin Desai | IES (Retd.) | Former Secretary and Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, GoI |
| 23. | Keshav Desiraju | IAS (Retd.) | Former Health Secretary, GoI |
| 24. | M.G. Devasahayam | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana |
| 25. | Sushil Dubey | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Sweden |
| 26. | K.P. Fabian | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Italy |
| 27. | Prabhu Ghate | IAS (Retd.) | Former Addl. Director General, Department of Tourism, GoI |
| 28. | Gourisankar Ghosh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Mission Director, National Drinking Water Mission, GoI |
| 29. | Suresh K. Goel | IFS (Retd.) | Former Director General, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, GoI |
| 30. | S. Gopal | IPS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, GoI |
| 31. | Meena Gupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI |
| 32. | Ravi Vira Gupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India |
| 33. | Wajahat Habibullah | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, GoI and Chief Information Commissioner |
| 34. | Sajjad Hassan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Commissioner (Planning), Govt. of Manipur |
| 35. | Siraj Hussain | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Agriculture, GoI |
| 36. | Kamal Jaswal | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI |
| 37. | Najeeb Jung | IAS (Retd.) | Former Lieutenant Governor, Delhi |
| 38. | Vinod C. Khanna | IFS (Retd.) | Former Additional Secretary, MEA, GoI |
| 39. | Rahul Khullar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India |
| 40. | K. John Koshy | IAS (Retd.) | Former State Chief Information Commissioner, West Bengal |
| 41. | Ajai Kumar | Indian Forest Service (Retd.) | Former Director, Ministry of Agriculture, GoI |
| 42. | Arun Kumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, GoI |
| 43. | P.K. Lahiri | IAS (Retd.) | Former Executive Director, Asian Development Bank |
| 44. | Subodh Lal | IPoS (Resigned) | Former Deputy Director General, Ministry of Communications, GoI |
| 45. | Amitabh Mathur | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director, Aviation Research Centre and Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 46. | Lalit Mathur | IAS (Retd.) | Former Director General, National Institute of Rural Development, GoI |
| 47. | Aditi Mehta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan |
| 48. | Dalip Mehta | IFS (Retd.) | Former Secretary to GoI & Dean, Foreign Service Institute |
| 49. | Shivshankar Menon | IFS (Retd.) | Former Foreign Secretary and Former National Security Adviser |
| 50. | Sonalini Mirchandani | IFS (Resigned) | GoI |
| 51. | Sunil Mitra | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoI |
| 52. | Avinash Mohananey | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Sikkim |
| 53. | Deb Mukharji | IFS (Retd.) | Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and former Ambassador to Nepal |
| 54. | Shiv Shankar Mukherjee | IFS (Retd.) | Former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom |
| 55. | Pranab S. Mukhopadhyay | IAS (Retd.) | Former Director, Institute of Port Management, GoI |
| 56. | P.G.J. Nampoothiri | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Gujarat |
| 57. | Surendra Nath | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Finance Commission, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 58. | Amitabha Pande | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI |
| 59. | Niranjan Pant | IA&AS (Retd.) | Former Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General, GoI |
| 60. | Alok Perti | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Coal, GoI |
| 61. | R. Poornalingam | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, GoI |
| 62. | R.M. Premkumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 63. | N.K. Raghupathy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Staff Selection Commission, GoI |
| 64. | V.P. Raja | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission |
| 65. | C. Babu Rajeev | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, GoI |
| 66. | K. Sujatha Rao | IAS (Retd.) | Former Health Secretary, GoI |
| 67. | Nirupama Menon Rao | IFS (Retd.) | Former Foreign Secretary, GoI |
| 68. | Satwant Reddy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Chemicals and Petrochemicals, GoI |
| 69. | Vijaya Latha Reddy | IFS (Retd.) | Former Deputy National Security Adviser, GoI |
| 70. | Julio Ribeiro | IPS (Retd.) | Former Adviser to Governor of Punjab & former Ambassador to Romania |
| 71. | Aruna Roy | IAS (Resigned) | |
| 72. | Manabendra N. Roy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 73. | Deepak Sanan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Adviser (AR) to Chief Minister, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh |
| 74. | G. Sankaran | IC&CES (Retd.) | Former President, Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal |
| 75. | Shyam Saran | IFS (Retd.) | Former Foreign Secretary and Former Chairman, National Security Advisory Board |
| 76. | S. Satyabhama | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairperson, National Seeds Corporation, GoI |
| 77. | N.C. Saxena | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Planning Commission, GoI |
| 78. | A. Selvaraj | IRS (Retd.) | Former Chief Commissioner, Income Tax, Chennai, GoI |
| 79. | Ardhendu Sen | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 80. | Abhijit Sengupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI |
| 81. | Aftab Seth | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Japan |
| 82. | Ashok Kumar Sharma | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Finland and Estonia |
| 83. | Navrekha Sharma | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Indonesia |
| 84. | Raju Sharma | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh |
| 85. | K.S. Sidhu | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 86. | Sujatha Singh | IFS (Retd.) | Former Foreign Secretary, GoI |
| 87. | Tirlochan Singh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, National Commission for Minorities, GoI |
| 88. | Jawhar Sircar
|
IAS (Retd.)
|
Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI, & former CEO, Prasar Bharati |
| 89. | Narendra Sisodia | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoI |
| 90. | Sudershan K. Sudhakar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Govt. of Punjab |
| 91. | Thanksy Thekkekera | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Minorities Development, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 92. | Geetha Thoopal | IRAS (Retd.) | Former General Manager, Metro Railway, Kolkata
|
| 93. | Hindal Tyabji | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary rank, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir |
| 94. | Ramani Venkatesan
|
IAS (Retd.) | Former Director General, YASHADA, Govt. of Maharashtra |
Attachments
https://constitutionalconduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/ccg-letter_harsh-mander_march-2020.pdf
Constitutional Conduct Group 