197 eminent citizens have written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticising another letter by former bureaucrats which had sought an end to what it had claimed as politics of hate.

On April 26, 101 former bureaucrats describing themselves as a "Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG)" had written an open letter to PM Modi claiming that an escalation of hate violence against minority communities had acquired a frightening new dimension.

The fresh letter by eminent citizens; comprising of 8 retired judges, 97 retired bureaucrats, and 92 retired officers from the armed forces, has termed CCG's letter as part of "agenda-driven biased politicised statements" and questioned its motivations.

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The letter has dubbed CCG's letter "as a repeated effort to draw attention to themselves as citizens with a higher sense of social purpose, whereas the reality is that this is a manifest political anti-Modi government exercise which this group undertakes periodically in the belief that they can shape public opinion against the ruling dispensation."

Retired IPS AS Dulat, who formerly served as OSD on Kashmir in the PMO and was a signatory to the letter by CCG, said, "Ours may be a minority view, but it's still a view."

The fresh letter calls CCG's open letter as "anger and anguish” and a way to release their frustration that public opinion remains solidly behind PM Modi as recent state elections have shown.

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The letter, whose signatories include ex-foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal and ex-IFS Lakshmi Puri, questions the "silence of this so-called CCG on unprecedented post-poll violence in West Bengal", which was so serious that the Calcutta High Court had to ask the National Human Rights Commission to carry out an independent investigation which led to critical report against the West Bengal state government.

Observing a striking similarity between phrases of the CCG letter and utterances in the western media, the open letter rues that no similar condemnation took place when premeditated attacks took place on peaceful religious demonstrations on the occasions of Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti.

First Published:Apr 30, 2022 8:57 PM IST