New Delhi: Former Bureaucrats who have worked with the Central and State Governments in different capacities wrote an open letter to companies urging them not to give advertisements to TV channels that are spreading divisiveness.
Constitutional Conduct Group
The signatories of the letter formed an organization named, “Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG)”.
In the letter they said, “upholding the principles of the constitution is not a function of governments alone”.
They wrote, “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”.
They alleged, “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”.
Example cited
Citing an example, they wrote, “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”.
Highlighting the impact of advertising on channels spreading divisiveness they wrote, “Advertising on channels which spread divisiveness is bad not only on moral grounds but bad for business as well”.
Explaining how advertising on such channels is bad for business, they wrote, “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”.
Signatories
Following are the list of signatories of the letter
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. Shafi Alam IPS (Retd.) Former Director General, National Crime Records Bureau, GoI
4. K. Saleem Ali IPS (Retd.) Former Special Director, CBI, GoI
5. S.P. Ambrose IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Secretary, Ministry of Shipping &
Transport, GoI
6. G. Balachandhran IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
7. Vappala Balachandran IPS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI
8. Gopalan Balagopal IAS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
9. Chandrashekhar Balakrishnan IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Coal, GoI
10. T.K. Banerji IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Union Public Service Commission
11. Sharad Behar IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh
12. Aurobindo Behera IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Odisha
13. Madhu Bhaduri IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Portugal
14. Pradip Bhattacharya IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Development & Planning and Administrative Training Institute, Govt. of West Bengal
15. Ravi Budhiraja IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, GoI
16. Sundar Burra IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra
17. R. Chandramohan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Secretary, Transport and Urban Development, Govt. of NCT of Delhi
18. Rachel Chatterjee IAS (Retd.) Former Special Chief Secretary, Agriculture, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh
19. Anna Dani IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra
20. Vibha Puri Das IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GoI
21. P.R. Dasgupta IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Food Corporation of India, GoI
22. Nareshwar Dayal IFS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs and former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
23. Pradeep K. Deb IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Deptt. Of Sports, GoI
24. Nitin Desai IES (Retd.) Former Secretary and Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, GoI
25. Keshav Desiraju IAS (Retd.) Former Health Secretary, GoI
26. M.G. Devasahayam IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana
27. Sushil Dubey IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Sweden
28. K.P. Fabian IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Italy
29. Arif Ghauri IRS (Retd.) Former Governance Adviser, DFID, Govt. of the United Kingdom (on deputation)
30. Gourisankar Ghosh IAS (Retd.) Former Mission Director, National Drinking Water Mission, GoI
31. Suresh K. Goel IFS (Retd.) Former Director General, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, GoI
32. S.K. Guha IAS (Retd.) Former Joint Secretary, Department of Women & Child Development, GoI
33. H.S. Gujral IFoS (Retd.) Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Govt. of Punjab
34. Meena Gupta IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI
35. Ravi Vira Gupta IAS (Retd.) Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India
36. Wajahat Habibullah IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, GoI and Chief Information Commissioner
37. Sajjad Hassan IAS (Retd.) Former Commissioner (Planning), Govt. of Manipur
38. Siraj Hussain IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Agriculture, GoI
39. Kamal Jaswal IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI
40. Najeeb Jung IAS (Retd.) Former Lieutenant Governor, Delhi
41. Rahul Khullar IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
42. Ajai Kumar IFoS(Retd.) Former Director, Ministry of Agriculture, GoI
43. Brijesh Kumar IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI
44. P.K. Lahiri IAS (Retd.) Former ED, Asian Development Bank & Former Revenue Secretary, GoI
45. Aloke B. Lal IPS (Retd.) Former Director General (Prosecution), Govt. of Uttarakhand
46. Subodh Lal IPoS (Resigned) Former Deputy Director General, Ministry of Communications, GoI
47. B.B. Mahajan IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Deptt. of Food, GoI
48. Harsh Mander IAS (Retd.) Govt. of Madhya Pradesh
49. Aditi Mehta IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan
50. Sonalini Mirchandani IFS (Resigned) GoI
51. Noor Mohammad IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority, Govt. of India
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. Nagalsamy IA&AS (Retd.) Former Principal Accountant General, Tamil Nadu & Kerala
57. Sobha Nambisan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Secretary (Planning), Govt. of Karnataka
58. P.G.J. Nampoothiri IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Gujarat
59. P. Joy Oommen IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Chhattisgarh
60. S.K. Pachauri IAS (Retd.) Former Director General, National Productivity Council, GoI
61. Amitabha Pande IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI
62. Mira Pande IAS (Retd.) Former State Election Commissioner, West Bengal
63. Alok Perti IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Coal, GoI
64. R. Poornalingam IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, GoI
65. V.P. Raja IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission
66. K. Sujatha Rao IAS (Retd.) Former Health Secretary, GoI
67. M.Y. Rao IAS (Retd.)
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. A.K. Samanta IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police (Intelligence), 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. N.C. Saxena IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Planning Commission, GoI
76. A. Selvaraj IRS (Retd.) Former Chief Commissioner, Income Tax, Chennai, GoI
77. Ardhendu Sen IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
78. Abhijit Sengupta IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI
79. Aftab Seth IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Japan
80. Ashok Kumar Sharma IFoS (Retd.) Former MD, State Forest Development Corporation, Govt. of Gujarat
81. Ashok Kumar Sharma IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Finland and Estonia
82. Navrekha Sharma IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Indonesia
83. Raju Sharma IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh
84. Tirlochan Singh IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, National Commission for Minorities, GoI
85. Narendra Sisodia IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoI
86. A.K. Srivastava IAS (Retd.) Former Administrative Member, Madhya Pradesh Administrative Tribunal
87. Sanjivi Sundar IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Surface Transport, GoI
88. Parveen Talha IRS (Retd.) Former Member, Union Public Service Commission
89. Thanksy Thekkekera IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Minorities Development, Govt. of Maharashtra
90. P.S.S. Thomas IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission
91. Geetha Thoopal IRAS (Retd.) Former General Manager, Metro Railway, Kolkata
92. Hindal Tyabji IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary rank, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir
93. Jawed Usmani IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Information Commissioner, Uttar Pradesh
94. Ashok Vajpeyi IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi
95. Ramani Venkatesan IAS (Retd.) Former Director General, YASHADA, Govt. of Maharashtra