A defence of the indefensible?

Connoisseurs of humour know that all genuine humour is underlaid with wisdom, which provides the actual punch. And so it was that, when I read the recent open letter issued by 124 retired civil servants defending Gyanesh Kumar and his nefarious doings, I was reminded of the sage words of Maurice Switzer: "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."

I was not surprised by this epistle, however, for my WhatsApp groups have a dense population of such bureaucrats, closet members of Mr Modi's tribe. What did surprise me, however, is that, for once, they chose to speak out (on the wrong side of history, yes, but they did come out of their burrows), because such people are more comfortable in the security of the woodwork and like to hedge their bets.

They do not rock boats, they never take a stand, they always worship the rising sun, and they know which side of their bread is buttered. I suspect they were persuaded to say 'aye' by Mr Modi's gentle persuaders — a few crumbs, loaves and charge-sheets might have been traded — to sign on the dotted lines (not difficult, for it is something they have done for most of their careers).

A word about the signatories to the letter would not be out of place. Most of them are faceless wonders, which is as it should be, since their faces have egg, if not worse, all over them by now. A couple have been accused of embezzlement and corruption; one displayed his bigotry and misogyny brazenly at an event in a ladies' college some time back; yet another, now a chancellor of a Central university, has been an acolyte of the BJP for a long time; some are working with right-wing organisations like the Vivekanand Foundation and ORG; one is on record as stating that he has issued orders under political pressure!

Not exactly the kind of 'concerned' citizens who can be trusted to comment objectively on the doings of this regime and its puppets like the Election Commission. In short, their credentials are highly suspect.

The letter itself is a manifesto of the ignorant and a charter of obsequiousness. It praises the Election Commission of India for its 'historical' achievements (which, needless to say, belong to the past and not the present dispensation), supports SIR as a much-needed exercise, condemns those who are asking for Gyanesh Kumar's resignation, and backs Modi's regime to the hilt. (It has to be the hilt, because they have impaled themselves upon this sacerdotal sword in true hara-kiri style.)

The windmill this G-124 is tilting at is clearly the letters issued earlier by another group of civil servants, the CCG (Constitutional Conduct Group), which has, over the last ten years, established a sterling reputation for taking a principled stand on many issues where it felt the government had violated constitutional values, rights and provisions. Maybe the heat was getting to someone in the kitchen?

I shall not try to counter and expose the fallacies, downright untruths, lack of logic and distortion of facts in the G-124 letter: that has already been done very ably and comprehensively by M.G. Devasahayam, a senior retired IAS officer, with facts and figures in an article in The Wire on 16 October.

Nothing, however, proves how wrong these letter writers are more than the conduct of the Election Commission itself over the last few days since the second round of protests in Delhi. It has practically admitted its guilt and culpability in the SIR fiasco. By gradually (and quietly) rolling back and reversing some of the draconian and illegal provisions of this exercise of exclusion, it has validated the charges against it. Just to recapitulate, in the last couple of weeks it has taken the following decisions:

• The mischievous declaration attached to Form 6 has been removed.

• Access to ECINET has been restored for the EROs (but not yet, strangely, for the Tribunal judges in Bengal!).

• A technical committee has been set up to audit the suspect ECINET software.

• It has admitted that the two Election Commissioners had indeed written to the Cabinet Secretary about the irregularities in the body.

• A cap has now been imposed on the number of infamous Forms 7 that can be submitted by one person.

• A special drive has been started to include voters who were left out or deleted in the states where SIR has concluded.

• In the 17 such states, an SSR (Special Summary Revision) has been initiated to enrol voters who have turned 18 and were left out of the SIR.

• Machine-readable voter rolls in PDF format shall now be provided to all candidates.

• Lists of deletions and additions shall be provided to all political parties.

• The ECI has implicitly admitted that it does not have any list or details of Amit Shah's 'ghuspaithiye' or termites (the oft-stated reason for SIR given by Gyanesh Kumar) among the 130 million deleted voters.

This is as comprehensive a guilty plea as any ever submitted by any accused to any court. For these actions and pieces of information were precisely what the entire Opposition and civil society activists had been demanding for months, but the imperious Gyanesh Kumar had been refusing to provide them, instead ordering the LoP to furnish an affidavit first!

His admission now strengthens the belief that all this was done (for the BJP) to win the elections in Bengal and Bihar. Wait for that admission too, as the noose around the ECI tightens.

Finally, the G-124 letter is not a legitimate expression of differing views or free speech, as its apologists may claim. It is an expression of support and encouragement for authoritarianism, intolerance, electoral cleansing, denial of fundamental rights and exclusion, and no civilised nation can countenance this kind of rhetoric.

It is dangerous for democracy and the rule of law. It has tarnished the reputation of the civil services. For, at the end of the day, anyone who supports wrongdoing is just as guilty of it as the prime mover himself. In the words of Nelson Mandela, in an appeal to his people issued from a prison cell: "Will you come along with us, or are you going to cooperate with the government in its efforts to suppress the claims and aspirations of your own people?"

The people of India deserve an answer from this rump of civil servants.

Views are personal. More of the writer's works here

Avay Shukla is a retired IAS officer and author of The Last Sky — Countdown for an Endangered Planet and other works. He blogs at avayshukla.blogspot.com