A group of former civil servants have written an open letter condemning the defaming of soldiers of the Muslim faith who are part of the armed forces of India. They have also expressed their full support to the veterans who had written to the President of the country seeking redress against this “malicious campaign of calumny against the soldiers” of a particular faith.
The signatories to the open letter, which include several former chief secretaries of states and secretaries of departments under the central government, have said that such attempts of defaming and dividing the armed forces can “be termed as acts of treason”. The letter further adds that at a time when assaults on the dignity of Muslim citizens of the country have become commonplace, “this particular theme which casts doubts on the loyalty of Muslim soldiers has wider implications which could have serious repercussions on our security and on fields of battle”.
Highlighting the veterans’ letter, they state that there was no such Muslim regiment as alleged. Therefore, they demand that an investigation should be carried out to find the antecedents of individuals who have made ‘Muslim Regiment’ post and they should be charged for anti-national activities. They have also demanded that the investigative agencies look into whether “elements that have been pursuing a hate cum polarising agenda in the country are deliberately propagating this fake news with a view to causing divisions in our armed forces, weakening our national resolve and security”.
The complete letter is produced below.
AN OPEN LETTER SEEKING INVESTIGATION INTO THE MALICIOUS CAMPAIGN OF CALUMNY AGAINST SOLDIERS OF THE MUSLIM FAITH IN THE INDIAN ARMED FORCES
21 OCTOBER 2020
We are a group of former civil servants of the All India and Central Services, who have worked for decades with Central and State Governments in the course of our careers. As a group, we have no affiliation with any political party but believe in the credo of impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Indian Constitution. We continue to uphold the oath of allegiance to our Constitution we took when we entered service.
We are deeply disturbed to note the malicious campaign of calumny against soldiers of the Muslim faith in the armed forces of India which has caused distinguished Veterans of our armed forces to petition the Hon’ble President of India, who is also the Supreme Commander of our armed forces, seeking redress. The contents of the letter have been widely publicized and a sample is noted below:
The letter from the Veterans points out that there was no such Muslim regiment in the first place. It forcefully establishes that the charges of dereliction of duty or disloyalty laid against Muslim troops in false social media posts, which have been named, have no basis whatsoever. We support the requests of the Veterans, namely: 1. Investigate the antecedents of individuals who have made ‘Muslim Regiment’ post. 2. Identify & charge individuals who have made the post, for anti-national activities. 3. Issue warning to Facebook & Twitter who have enabled these posts. 4. Issue instructions to all state governments that generation of such false & seditious messages in social media should be acted upon with alacrity.
While assaults against the dignity of our Muslim citizens, as indeed physical assaults, are becoming commonplace, this particular theme which casts doubts on the loyalty of Muslim soldiers has wider implications which could have serious repercussions on our security and on fields of battle. At a time, particularly, when India is facing grave external threats, attempts to divide the armed forces could well be termed acts of treason.
We, the undersigned, would therefore urge that our armed forces as also the Government of India take cognizance of these fake news and issue suitable statements to negate the efforts to sully the image of our forces and our country. As the Veterans have significantly pointed out, “the public assumes that it is the truth, especially when there is no official action against the perpetrators.”
We further demand that appropriate investigative agencies be urgently tasked to thoroughly investigate and determine whether elements that have been pursuing a hate cum polarising agenda in the country are deliberately propagating this fake news with a view to causing divisions in our armed forces, weakening our national resolve and security.
SATYAMEVA JAYATE
(91 signatories, as below)
1 Salahuddin Ahmad IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan
2 Shafi Alam IPS (Retd.) Former Director General, National Crime Records Bureau, GoI
3 S.P. Ambrose IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Secretary, Ministry of Shipping & Transport, GoI
4 Anand Arni R&AW (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI
5 Gopalan Balagopal IAS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
6 Chandrashekhar Balakrishnan IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Coal, GoI
7 T.K. Banerji IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Union Public Service Commission
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 Pradip Bhattacharya IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Development & Planning and Administrative Training Institute, Govt. of West Bengal
11 Sundar Burra IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra
12 Rachel Chatterjee IAS (Retd.) Former Special Chief Secretary, Agriculture, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh
13 Kalyani Chaudhuri IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
14 Anna Dani IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra
15 Vibha Puri Das IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GoI
16 P.R. Dasgupta IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Food Corporation of India, GoI
17 Nareshwar Dayal IFS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs and former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
18 Pradeep K. Deb IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Deptt. Of Sports, GoI
19 Nitin Desai IES (Retd.) Former Secretary and Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, GoI
20 Keshav Desiraju IAS (Retd.) Former Health Secretary, GoI
21 M.G. Devasahayam IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana
22 Sushil Dubey IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Sweden
23 A.S. Dulat IPS (Retd.) Former OSD on Kashmir, Prime Minister’s Office, GoI
24 Prabhu Ghate IAS (Retd.) Former Addl. Director General, Department of Tourism, GoI
25 Gourisankar Ghosh IAS (Retd.) Former Mission Director, National Drinking Water Mission, GoI
26 Suresh K. Goel IFS (Retd.) Former Director General, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, GoI
27 S. Gopal IPS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, GoI
28 S.K. Guha IAS (Retd.) Former Joint Secretary, Department of Women & Child Development, GoI
29 H.S. Gujral IFoS (Retd.) Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Govt. of Punjab
30 Meena Gupta IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI
31 Ravi Vira Gupta IAS (Retd.) Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India
32 Siraj Hussain IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Agriculture, GoI
33 Kamal Jaswal IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI
34 Najeeb Jung IAS (Retd.) Former Lieutenant Governor, Delhi
35 Rahul Khullar IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
36 K. John Koshy IAS (Retd.) Former State Chief Information Commissioner, West Bengal
37 Ajai Kumar IFoS(Retd.) Former Director, Ministry of Agriculture, GoI
38 Brijesh Kumar IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI
39 P.K. Lahiri IAS (Retd.) Former Executive Director, Asian Development Bank
40 Aloke B. Lal IPS (Retd.) Former Director General (Prosecution), Govt. of Uttarakhand
41 Subodh Lal IPoS (Resigned) Former Deputy Director General, Ministry of Communications, GoI
42 B.B. Mahajan IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Deptt. of Food, GoI
43 Harsh Mander IAS (Retd.) Govt. of Madhya Pradesh
44 Amitabh Mathur IPS (Retd.) Former Director, Aviation Research Centre and Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI
45 Lalit Mathur IAS (Retd.) Former Director General, National Institute of Rural Development, GoI
46 Aditi Mehta IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan
47 Sonalini Mirchandani IFS (Resigned) GoI
48 Noor Mohammad IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority, Govt. of India
49 Avinash Mohananey IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Sikkim
50 Deb Mukharji IFS (Retd.) Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and former Ambassador to Nepal
51 Shiv Shankar Mukherjee IFS (Retd.) Former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
52 Pranab S. Mukhopadhyay IAS (Retd.) Former Director, Institute of Port Management, GoI
53 Nagalsamy IA&AS (Retd.) Former Principal Accountant General, Tamil Nadu & Kerala
54 P.G.J. Nampoothiri IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Gujarat
55 P. Joy Oommen IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Chhattisgarh
56 Amitabha Pande IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI
57 Mira Pande IAS (Retd.) Former State Election Commissioner, West Bengal
58 Alok Perti IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Coal, GoI
59 R. Poornalingam IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, GoI
60 N.K. Raghupathy IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Staff Selection Commission, GoI
61 V.P. Raja IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission
62 K. Sujatha Rao IAS (Retd.) Former Health Secretary, GoI
63 Satwant Reddy IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Chemicals and Petrochemicals, GoI
64 Vijaya Latha Reddy IFS (Retd.) Former Deputy National Security Adviser, GoI
65 Julio Ribeiro IPS (Retd.) Former Adviser to Governor of Punjab & former Ambassador to Romania
66 Aruna Roy IAS (Resigned)
67 A.K. Samanta IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police (Intelligence), Govt. of West Bengal
68 Deepak Sanan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Adviser (AR) to Chief Minister, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh
69 G. Sankaran IC&CES (Retd.) Former President, Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal
70 Shyam Saran IFS (Retd.) Former Foreign Secretary and Former Chairman, National Security Advisory Board
71 S. Satyabhama IAS (Retd.) Former Chairperson, National Seeds Corporation, GoI
72 N.C. Saxena IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Planning Commission, GoI
73 Ardhendu Sen IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
74 Abhijit Sengupta IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI
75 Aftab Seth IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Japan
76 Ajay Shankar IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Deptt. of Industrial Policy & Promotion
77 Ashok Kumar Sharma IFoS (Retd.) Former MD, State Forest Development Corporation, Govt. of Gujarat
78 Ashok Kumar Sharma IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Finland and Estonia
79 Navrekha Sharma IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Indonesia
80 Pravesh Sharma IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh
81 Raju Sharma IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh
82 Rashmi Shukla Sharma IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh
83 Sujatha Singh IFS (Retd.) Former Foreign Secretary, GoI
84 Tirlochan Singh IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, National Commission for Minorities, GoI
85 Jawhar Sircar IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI, & former CEO, Prasar Bharati
86 Narendra Sisodia IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoI
87 P.S.S. Thomas IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission
88 Geetha Thoopal IRAS (Retd.) Former General Manager, Metro Railway, Kolkata
89 Hindal Tyabji IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary rank, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir
90 Ashok Vajpeyi IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi
91 Ramani Venkatesan IAS (Retd.) Former Director General, YASHADA, Govt. of Maharashtra