‘Your silence is deafening, end politics of hate’: Ex-bureaucrats write to PM Modi over communal violence

With incidents of communal violence being recorded in several religious events across the country for the past few weeks, former bureaucrats have written an “anguished” letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to take any action against these incidents.

The former civil servants wrote in their letter that the “politics of hate” in India must end, saying that PM Modi’s silence on the communal violence in India “is deafening”. They further said that such incidents are only happening in BJP-ruled states.

In their letter, the ex-bureaucrats wrote, “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".

There are a total of 108 signatories of the letter, including 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.

As per PTI reports, the letter reads, “As former civil servants, it is not normally our want to express ourselves in such extreme terms, but the relentless pace at which the constitutional edifice created by our founding fathers is being destroyed compels us to speak out and express our anger and anguish.”

It further said, “The escalation of hate violence against the minority communities, particularly Muslims, in the last few years and months across several states - Assam, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, all states in which the BJP is in power, barring Delhi (where the union government controls the police) - has acquired a frightening new dimension.”

Pointing out the fact that PM Narendra Modi has not yet made a public statement addressing the communal violence situation in several states, the bureaucrats wrote, “Your silence, in the face of this enormous societal threat, is deafening.”

Concluding the letter, the signatories requested PM Modi, “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 practicing.”

(With PTI inputs)

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