New Delhi: Nearly 200 former Judges, public servants and Armed Forces officers have come together to criticize the ex-civil servant's open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the alleged politics of hate across the nation on Saturday, news agency ANI reported.


Calling the open letter to PM Modi by ex-civil servants “empty virtue signalling,” 197 signatories said, "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 portrayal," news agency PTI reported.


The open letter to Modi was signed by eight former judges, 97 former bureaucrats, and 92 former military forces officials in response to the CCG's letter denouncing him and earlier BJP regimes, which was signed by 108 former bureaucrats.


In an open letter to PM Modi, the signatories said, "It's repeated effort to draw attention to themselves as citizens with a higher sense of social purpose, whereas reality's that this is manifest political anti-ModiGovt exercise this group undertakes in the belief it can shape public opinion against the ruling dispensation."






The group attempted to draw attention to a startling connection between the phraseology of the CCG missives and remarks in the western media or by western agencies calling the group's motives into doubt.


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


It also criticised its supposed "silence" on post-election violence in West Bengal. 


"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," the letter further reads.


The ex-judges and officials said that the CCG's deliberate omissions had exposed it.


They also said that serious sectarian violence has declined noticeably under the BJP leadership, which has been well received by the populace.


"This has instigated groups like the CCG to highlight beyond proportion sporadic instances of communal violence that no society can entirely eradicate," it said.


The 108 former public workers had written to Modi, imploring him to cease what they called a "politics of hate" reportedly practised "assiduously" by BJP-controlled governments.


"We are witnessing a frenzy of hate-filled destruction in the country where at the sacrificial altar are not just Muslims and members of the other minority communities but the Constitution itself," they said in an open letter to PM Modi.


(With Agencies Inputs)