July 21, 2019

An Open Letter
Our group of former civil servants of the All India and Central Services has no affiliation with any
political party and is firmly committed to the Constitution of India. We strongly condemn many
recent attempts by the ruling establishment to punish and intimidate human rights defenders and
dissenters from State policy. Among these recent efforts were the raids conducted by the Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on 11 July, 2019 in the offices and residence of human rights lawyers
and Senior Advocates Indira Jaising and Anand Grover.
Lawyers Collective and its founding Trustees, Ms. Indira Jaising and Mr. Anand Grover have been at
the forefront in furthering women’s rights, gender equality, and environmental issues and have been
committed to fighting over decades for the rule of law.
Ms. Indira Jaising, who has also been Additional Solicitor General of India, has been the force behind
the passing of a law preventing Domestic Violence against women in India, the recognition of right
to shelter of pavement dwellers, the rights of hawkers, and many other social justice issues.
Mr. Anand Grover has done a lifetime of work on access to health and affordable medicines, and led
the advocacy and litigation for decriminalization of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. He has also
held the prestigious position of UN Special Rapporteur on right to health from August 2008 to July
2014.
Both Ms. Jaising and Mr. Grover have been involved in politically sensitive matters, especially Ms.
Jaising in the Sohrabuddin murder case where the current union Home Minister, Amit Shah was an
accused.
These raids at their residence and office of Lawyers Collective in Delhi and Mumbai by the CBI were
vindictive and we emphatically denounce the abuse of authority in harassing human rights
defenders. The matter relating to the alleged violations of financial laws by the Lawyers Collective is
presently before the High Court of Bombay. Media reports indicate that the Bombay High Court had
ordered, in January 2017, the de-freezing of the domestic and non-FCRA bank accounts of Lawyers
Collective, observing also that Foreign Contributions Regulations Act (FCRA) “does not provide for a
government to stifle the very functioning of individuals or associations". The Government, instead
of following an ongoing legal process, has chosen to launch a fresh attack on them in an attempt to
silence them.
The raids we have mentioned above are sadly not isolated incidents. In the past couple of months,
we have seen similar attacks on those who dissent with the policies of the present establishment.
A little-known wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, whose proximity to the ruling
establishment is no secret, is certifying some of India’s most credible leaders of social movements
such as Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh as ‘urban Naxals’. These are respected persons who
have given their life’s efforts in working for the common man. Indeed, in the “urban Naxal” case that
arose out of Bhima-Koregaon, ten respected and brave human rights activists have been charged,
and several of them have spent over a year in prison without even getting either bail or copies of
the so-called incriminating letters which form the basis of the case. Is liberty not a fundamental value
in our democracy?
Most recently, the Assam administration has registered grave criminal charges against 10 senior and
young Muslim Bengali-speaking poets for writing protest poetry! In the tradition of protest Black,
Dalit and Queer poetry, these poets have created a new genre of poetry which they call Miya poetry,
in which they lament and protest about the suffering of their people as a result of the NRC process.
They now are charged with inciting hatred under sections which could keep them in jail for many
years of their lives.
We strongly condemn the attacks on these human rights defenders, dissenters and poets. Dissent
and freedom of expression are the life-blood of any democracy. We find it intensely worrying that
there are crude and ham-handed attempts to intimidate such voices into silence, using the
institutions of state authority. This appears an attempt to govern by fear and intimidation, the
reverse of the India which Rabindranath Tagore dreamed of ‘where the mind is without fear, and the
head is held high’. We stand in solidarity with all who follow the voices of their conscience, in their
own ways speaking truth to power; and demand that they be protected and the spaces for their
dissent defended robustly.

1. S.P. Ambrose IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Secretary, Ministry of Shipping

& Transport, GoI
2. Vappala IPS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI
Balachandran
3. Gopalan IAS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
Balagopal
4. Chandrashekh IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Coal, GoI
ar
Balakrishnan
5. Sharad Behar IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh
6. Madhu IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Portugal
Bhaduri
7. Meeran C IPS (Retd.) Former DGP, Bureau of Police Research and
Borwankar Development, GoI
8. Ravi Budhiraja IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, GoI
9. Sundar Burra IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra
10. Kalyani IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West
Chaudhuri Bengal
11. Anna Dani IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of
Maharashtra
12. Vibha Puri Das IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GoI
13. P.R. Dasgupta IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Food Corporation of India, GoI
14. Pradeep K. IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Deptt. Of Sports, GoI
Deb
15. Nitin Desai IES (Retd.) Former Secretary and Chief Economic Adviser,
Ministry of Finance, GoI
16. Keshav IAS (Retd.) Former Health Secretary, GoI
Desiraju
17. M.G. IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana
Devasahayam
18. Sushil Dubey IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Sweden
19. K.P. Fabian IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Italy
20. Gourisankar IAS (Retd.) Former Mission Director, National Drinking Water
Ghosh Mission, GoI
21. S.K. Guha IAS (Retd.) Former Joint Secretary, Department of Women &
Child Development, GoI
22. Meena Gupta IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment &
Forests, GoI
23. Ravi Vira IAS (Retd.) Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India
Gupta
24. Wajahat IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, GoI and Chief Information
Habibullah Commissioner
25. Sajjad Hassan IAS (Retd.) Former Commissioner (Planning), Govt. of Manipur
26. Kamal Jaswal IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Information
Technology, GoI
27. Subodh Lal IPoS (Retd.) Former Deputy Director General, Ministry of
Communications, GoI
28. Harsh Mander IAS (Retd.) Govt. of Madhya Pradesh
29. Aditi Mehta IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of
Rajasthan
30. Sonalini IFS GoI
Mirchandani (Resigned)
31. Deb Mukharji IFS (Retd.) Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and
former Ambassador to Nepal
32. Nagalswamy IA&AS Former Principal Accountant General, Tamil Nadu
(Retd.) & Kerala
33. P.G.J. IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Gujarat
Nampoothiri
34. Amitabha IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI
Pande
35. Niranjan Pant IA&AS Former Deputy Comptroller & Auditor General of
(Retd.) India
36. P. R. IPS (Retd.) Former Director, Anti-Corruption Bureau, Govt. of
Parthasarathy Maharashtra
37. Jayant Prasad IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Nepal
38. T.R. IAS (Retd.) Former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj,
Raghunandan GoI
39. V.P. Raja IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Maharashtra Electricity
Regulatory Commission
40. C. Babu Rajeev IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, GoI
41. Julio Ribeiro IPS (Retd.) Former Adviser to Governor of Punjab & former
Ambassador to Romania
42. Deepak Sanan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Adviser (AR) to Chief Minister,
Govt. of Himachal Pradesh
43. Deepak Indian Former Chief Information Commissioner, Central
Sandhu Information Information Commission
Service
(Retd.)
44. N.C. Saxena IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Planning Commission, GoI
45. Ardhendu Sen IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
46. Abhijit IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI
Sengupta
47. Aftab Seth IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Japan
48. Ashok Kumar IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Finland and Estonia
Sharma
49. Navrekha IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Indonesia
Sharma
50. Pravesh IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of
Sharma Madhya Pradesh
51. Raju Sharma IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Uttar
Pradesh
52. Rashmi Shukla IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of
Sharma Madhya Pradesh
53. Thanksy IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Minorities
Thekkekera Development, Govt. of Maharashtra
54. P.S.S. Thomas IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary General, National Human Rights
Commission
55. Geetha IRAS (Retd.) Former General Manager, Metro Railway, Kolkata
Thoopal
56. Hindal Tyabji IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary rank, Govt. of Jammu &
Kashmir