Former Civil Servants Bemoan 'Complete Breakdown' of Governance in Uttar Pradesh

By Dilip -

New Delhi: A group of former civil servants has written an open letter condemning the ‘complete breakdown’ of governance and blatant violation of the rule of law in Uttar Pradesh, saying the Yogi Adityanath government has “ushered in a model of governance which swerves further and further away from the values of the constitution and the rule of law with each passing day.' The statement by Constitutional Conduct Group, supported by several other concerned eminent citizens, said that clear that all branches of the administration in UP, including the executive magistrates and the police, have “collapsed”.

“We fear that, unless checked now, the damage to the polity and institutions in the state will result in the decay and destruction of democracy itself,” said the signatories, who have no political affiliations but are “committed to the constitution of India”. They say that detentions, criminal charges and recovery orders have become common methods to suppress the right to dissent, mentioning among other things the arrest of journalist Siddique Kappan. Other developments which cause concern are rampant ‘encounter killings’, the so-called love jihad law, misuse of the National Security Act and the government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, the signatories say.

“We fear that, unless checked now, the damage to the polity and institutions in the state will result in the decay and destruction of democracy itself,” the statement says. They suggest measures which would reverse the administration’s trajectory. Among the prominent former civil servants who have signed the statement are Najeeb Jung, Harsh Mander, Shivshankar Menon, Aruna Roy, Julio Ribeiro, Jawhar Sircar, while it is supported by Justice (Retired) A.P. Shah and more than 200 other signatories who are not members of the Constitutional Conduct Group.

The full statement and list of signatories have been republished below…

https://thewire.in/government/constitutional-conduct-group-uttar-pradesh-breakdown-governance-statement

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