Great Injustice Has Been Done To Farmers: 75 Former Civil Servants Write To Centre

Amid the ongoing farmer protest in New Delhi, a group of ex-civil servants on Friday wrote to Centre stating that great injustice has been done to farmers and expressed concern about the adversarial treatment of farmers by the centre.

Around 75 former civil servants, including former Delhi Lieutenant Governor, Najeeb Jung, former IPS Julio Ribeiro, and Aruna Roy, are part of the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG). The bureaucrats said that the apolitical farmers are being treated like 'an irresponsible opposition to be derided, demonised and defeated', reported NDTV.

"The repeated, albeit unsuccessful, attempts to polarise the protest along regional, communal and other lines are also reprehensible. Such an approach can never lead to a solution," the letter said.

Expressing concern over Republic Day incident, the civil servants asked, "When one section of farmers hoisted their flag below the National Flag at the Red Fort, why were the police doing literally nothing to prevent the occurrence? What action has the GoI initiated against those in the Delhi Police, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Defence for dereliction of duty? Having barricades at Singhu, which clearly was dividing the farmers sitting in the demonstration, how a few hooligans were able to break the barricades and attack the farmers in the presence of police?" The letter also questioned the police's late reaction to the incident.

The group also questioned the selective coverage of the entire incident by government-controlled and other media outlets. "What happened in the remaining places? Why was the peaceful tractor parade in other places, with citizens welcoming the farmers with flowers and food, not shown?"

Concern was also raised over the blockage of essential services from the farmers such as water, electricity, and the internet and over the barricading of the borders with spikes, bed of nails, barbed wires.

The letter also focused over the issue of sedition charges made out against certain journalists and a Member of Parliament solely for certain tweets posted by them even when the factual position was not clear.

All the officers in the letter reasserted and reiterated their support for the farmers who are demanding the three farm laws to be repealed.

Concluding the letter, they wrote, "We expect the GoI to provide a healing touch and to solve the issue to the satisfaction of the stakeholders."

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