Former judges, bureaucrats defend Modi govt in open letter, bash critical colleagues

A group of former judges and bureaucrats has issued a rejoinder to another ex-bureaucrats' group, which expressed concerns about ‘politics of hate’ in an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing it of trying to sway public opinion and indulging in ‘virtue signalling’.

Calling itself 'Concerned Citizens', the group said it does not believe the open letter to Modi by the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG) -- the name of the association of former bureaucrats -- had ‘sincere motivations’.

They said the letter was the group's way to let out its frustration against the public opinion which remains ‘solidly behind Modi’ and cited BJP's recent election wins.

Eight former judges, 97 former bureaucrats, and 92 former armed forces officers signed the open letter written to Modi to counter the letter criticizing him and other BJP governments by the CCG, which was signed by 108 former bureaucrats.

"Their 'anger and anguish' is not only empty virtue-signaling, they are actually fuelling the politics of hate they seek to combat by attempting to engineer hate against the present government with their patent prejudices and false portrayals,” said ‘Concerned Citizens'.

“That these open letters repeat the same language, have the same tenor and use biased terms with clear ideological moorings speaks for itself.”

The group tried to draw attention towards a “striking similarity between the phraseology of the CCG missives and utterances in the western media or by western agencies” questioning the group's intent.

It also called out its alleged "silence" on post-poll violence in West Bengal.

“It lays bare their cynical and unprincipled approach to issues,” the Modi-defending group said.

“The same attitude shapes their reactions (or rather the lack of any reaction) to the multiple violent incidents in various states ruled by different political parties and targeted violation of human rights adversely affecting the livelihoods of the poor irrespective of their religion," it said.

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