31 October 2020
We are a group of former officers of the All India and Central Services who have worked with the Central and State Governments in different capacities. We have come together as a group known as the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG). This group does not support any political party but believes in impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Constitution of India.
In the normal course, when we observe a flagrant violation of the principles embodied in the Constitution, we write letters or make open statements pointing this out to the concerned governments and to constitutional/statutory bodies. However, upholding the principles of the Constitution is not a function of governments alone. All of us, as individual citizens as well as members of various organisations in the country – social, political, professional or business – have a duty to uphold the values enshrined in the Constitution and to follow these principles both in our work as well as in our personal lives. Unfortunately, in recent times, we see growing discord and distrust among the people of the country and a steady erosion of democratic values with long term consequences for everyone.
Today, we are addressing this open letter not to the government but to an equally important segment of society, viz. the various companies, business houses and corporates in the country. These entities, responsible for wealth creation in the country, have not, we believe, been doing their bit in upholding the rights and freedoms spelt out in the Constitution. Sadly, an impression has gained ground that these bodies have preferred to look the other way even as a rising tide of hatred and divisiveness threatens the very foundations of our society.
Many well-established corporates have shown no hesitation in advertising their products on media channels which have made it a practice to ramp up their viewership by spewing hatred, creating divisions on the basis of religion and caste, manufacturing false narratives and making criminals out of law-abiding people. It is possible that these corporates have not given sufficient thought to how their acts have unwittingly strengthened the forces which divide the nation through deliberate false propaganda.
Our Constitution, as we know, guarantees fundamental rights to each and every one of its citizens. Article 15 of the Constitution prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex and place of birth. It is a matter of concern for all of us that several media channels have gone against this fundamental right on a regular basis and yet receive advertisements from many companies. Channels which communalise the spread of COVID-19, allege that the UPSC has allowed Muslims to ‘infiltrate’ the higher civil services and dub sensitive advertisements about communal harmony as “Love Jihad” are unfortunately patronised by many corporates. Corporates often go by apparently doubtful TRP numbers to decide their policy for advertisements. It is certainly time to look beyond such technical considerations.
Advertising on channels which spread divisiveness is bad not only on moral grounds but bad for business as well. As several economists and social scientists have pointed out, investments tend to wither when there is unrest. And that is, unquestionably, what has been happening in India. India’s investment as a percentage of the nominal GDP has declined from 41.2% in Sept 2011 to 21.4% in June 2020. Many other growth parameters have been on a downward spiral too. Distrust, fear and uncertainty hurt not just the fabric of society but business as well.
In the midst of this gloom, a few corporates stand out like shining beacons: they have taken a stand against advertising on media channels which foment hatred and disharmony. We commend them for their initiative and courage. We also fervently hope that other corporates will follow their example. To all companies, business houses and corporate bodies we would like to say: let not any of your actions, even inadvertently, help forces that create discord and ill-will amongst our people. This country and its people deserve better. It is time to show, through both substantive and symbolic acts, that we uphold the principles of our Constitution and are committed to the peace and prosperity of all our citizens.
SATYAMEVA JAYATE
(95 signatories, as below)
| Anita Agnihotri | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Social Justice Empowerment, GoI | |
| Salahuddin Ahmad | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan | |
| Shafi Alam | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General, National Crime Records Bureau, GoI | |
| K. Saleem Ali | IPS (Retd.) | Former Special Director, CBI, GoI | |
| S.P. Ambrose | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Secretary, Ministry of Shipping & Transport, GoI | |
| G. Balachandhran | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal | |
| 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 | |
| Pradip Bhattacharya | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Development & Planning and Administrative Training Institute, Govt. of West Bengal | |
| 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 | |
| Anna Dani | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra | |
| Vibha Puri Das | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GoI | |
| P.R. Dasgupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Food Corporation of India, GoI | |
| Nareshwar Dayal | IFS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs and former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom | |
| Pradeep K. Deb | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Deptt. Of Sports, GoI | |
| Nitin Desai | IES (Retd.) | Former Secretary and Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, GoI | |
| Keshav Desiraju | IAS (Retd.) | Former Health Secretary, GoI | |
| M.G. Devasahayam | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana | |
| Sushil Dubey | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Sweden | |
| K.P. Fabian | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Italy | |
| Arif Ghauri | IRS (Retd.) | Former Governance Adviser, DFID, Govt. of the United Kingdom (on deputation) | |
| 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.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 Chief Information Commissioner | |
| Sajjad Hassan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Commissioner (Planning), Govt. of Manipur | |
| Siraj Hussain | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Agriculture, GoI | |
| Kamal Jaswal | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI | |
| Najeeb Jung | IAS (Retd.) | Former Lieutenant Governor, Delhi | |
| Rahul Khullar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India | |
| Ajai Kumar | IFoS(Retd.) | Former Director, Ministry of Agriculture, GoI | |
| Brijesh Kumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI | |
| P.K. Lahiri | IAS (Retd.) | Former ED, Asian Development Bank & Former Revenue Secretary, GoI | |
| Aloke B. Lal | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General (Prosecution), Govt. of Uttarakhand | |
| Subodh Lal | IPoS (Resigned) | Former Deputy Director General, Ministry of Communications, GoI | |
| B.B. Mahajan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Deptt. of Food, GoI | |
| Harsh Mander | IAS (Retd.) | Govt. of Madhya Pradesh | |
| Aditi Mehta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan | |
| Sonalini Mirchandani | IFS (Resigned) | GoI | |
| Noor Mohammad | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority, Govt. of India | |
| Avinash Mohananey | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Sikkim | |
| 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 | |
| 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.G.J. Nampoothiri | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Gujarat | |
| P. Joy Oommen | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Chhattisgarh | |
| S.K. Pachauri | IAS (Retd.) | Former Director General, National Productivity Council, GoI | |
| Amitabha Pande | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI | |
| Mira Pande | IAS (Retd.) | Former State Election Commissioner, West Bengal | |
| Alok Perti | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Coal, GoI | |
| R. Poornalingam | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, 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.) | ||
| 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) | ||
| 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 | |
| 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 | |
| Tirlochan Singh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, National Commission for Minorities, GoI | |
| Narendra Sisodia | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoI | |
| A.K. Srivastava | IAS (Retd.) | Former Administrative Member, Madhya Pradesh Administrative Tribunal | |
| Sanjivi Sundar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Surface Transport, GoI | |
| Parveen Talha | IRS (Retd.) | Former Member, Union Public Service Commission | |
| Thanksy Thekkekera | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Minorities Development, Govt. of Maharashtra | |
| P.S.S. Thomas | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission | |
| Geetha Thoopal | IRAS (Retd.) | Former General Manager, Metro Railway, Kolkata | |
| Hindal Tyabji | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary rank, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir | |
| Jawed Usmani | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Information Commissioner, Uttar Pradesh | |
| Ashok Vajpeyi | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi | |
| Ramani Venkatesan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Director General, YASHADA, Govt. of Maharashtra |
Constitutional Conduct Group 
Stop sheltering anti social and anti India elements and support to Islamic radicals
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Zee news has exposed this group today very nicely.
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This group is misguiding doing on Congress and communist agenda .avoid and ignore this group
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This CCG is only concerned for muslims and don’t care about kafirs. They should come to face the public if they have the guts.
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This ccg group should shift base to Pakistan, they will be welcomed by Imran Khan. Bravo.
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First of all i would like to say by whom the nomesensense people like u had been selected as ias,ips,ifs wat ever.straight away answer my following qustion
1) wat do u say abt sahin baag?
2)Wat do u say abt nrc & caa protest across the country?
3)Wat do say abt kashmiri pandit who have been raped,murdered,looted and expelled from their own land?
4)Wat do u say abt love jehad?
In all the 4 points where is constitution?
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Hello all super intelligent minds,
I would like to know your views on
Roshni act jammu
(If you have guts)
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These all r Corrupt , Fraud Govt. officers who did ayashi on Tax Payers Money during their Hay Days & now want free biooties from Govt. so their Ayashi Continue
They all are sucker of Congress, Anti National Forces
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Very well said
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I think, these beaurecrates are corrupt in their service period…. They reacted on an agenda type issue…..if they are right…then react on all social issues
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These people have proved that how they have worked hard during their service life to destroy the past, present and future of the country under the patronization of their favorite political parties like CONGRESS & CPM.
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This Group is complete Urban Naxal gang. They are product of USSR espionage mechanism done from 1967 to 1994 , ref. “Mitrokhin Archive” Chapter 17 “Special relation with India” . Where its described, USSR create a Right wing covered Ultra leftist group. Who were prepared to penetrate every single system and institution and politics. But worked behalf of Left Wing. You can see all of the member are retired. Naturally the mechanism run till 1994 maybe some extent 1999. But not beyond that so all the member are belongs to that period. They are the tip of “Urban Naxal” 95 iceberg..
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Your group only support Islam …u r not secular,,you are thief of history
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intellectuals like you all contradictly speaks about a specified agenda..#CHACHA AREO CHACHA..CHOMHU banate ho logo ko..
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I have read the “open letters” of this CCG. It is abundantly clear this group is driven by specific agenda; they are just opposite to what they claim to be. Its really is a gang out to drive a particular though process which is pro-Muslim, and anti-India.
It’s mind boggling how these guys who held responsible positions in government would have performed. They have openly biased mindset. I have no sympathy with the CCG, they are bunch of crooks, liars, and deceivers.
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The intolerance at it’s best.
The most nasty attempt to choke the Voice of Medias who raise the real concerns of Hindus.
They self employed themselves as a guardian of Constitution and trying to impose their ideology to others
These people are nothing other than Left Liberal Secular groups whose agenda is to spread Anti Hindu and Anti National propaganda.
They support Love Jihad by denying the facts…
They Support Anarchy in the name of Anti CAA protest by not condemning that.
They support Delhi riots by supporting the main accused behind the Riots…
And then the claim they are Constitutional Conduct Group. Is it a Joke?
They are just another face of this Left Liberal Secular Anti National and Anti Hindu who has definite agenda.
How can someone whoever it be claim themselves as the custodians of Constitution and impose their ideology over others?
This attempt itself is unconstitutional..
Shame on these agenda driven anti National and anti Hindu organizations.
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This ccg group should shift base to Pakistan, they will be welcomed by Imran Khan. Bravo.
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Wonderful group this ccg, their constant hue and cry against hindus of India, shows what kind of administrators they must have been. We can all see the condition of our country even so many years after independence, no need to elaborate on their efficacy.
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The more you people speak, the more citizens know about the rot in bureaucracy. Majority of you owe their loyalty to congress only given that you enjoyed fruits of their power. The government should appoint a independent commission to look into how these officers performed when they were in service and the kind of assault they perpetrated on construction.
Also stop treating normal citizens as fools. Everybody understands why you are going after certain news channels. In hindsight it seems that had media done it’s job during the past 70 years , we wouldn’t have witnessed such blatant minority appeasement. Showing the truth is not toxicity and hate. People remember who threw stones and assaulted health workers, who were the biggest impediment to lockdown, who gave calls for beheading etc etc
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