South Asia Citizens Web

We are a group of retired officers of All India and Central services of different batches, who have worked with the Central and state governments in the course of our careers. We should make it clear that as a group, we have no affiliation with any political party but believe in the credo of impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Indian constitution. A sense of deep disquiet at what has been happening in India has prompted us to write this open letter to chronicle our reservations and misgivings about recent developments in the body politic. What has gone wrong?

In March 2001, six months before September 11, the Taliban destroyed the famous Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, calling them idols and therefore unIslamic. They cared little about the heritage or culture of Afghanistan. In 2015, the soldiers of the so-called Islamic State in Syria destroyed hundreds of invaluable sculptures from Roman times in the ancient city of Palmyra, because they found them unIslamic. The world was aghast at such savagery. Is Bangladesh on the way to becoming such a country?

The relationship between the Indian Army and Indian democracy might be entering new and unchartered waters. . . . The army . . .has even more to fear in the long run from the mob behind it, egging it on.

While it is understandable that each political party has its own ideology that it would like to propagate, there must be checks and balances in the system to ensure that the facts of history are not changed in school text books with every change of government.