NEW DELHI: More than 100 former bureaucrats have written a letter to the UP prime minister Yogi Adityanath, saying that the anti-conversion ordinance had transformed the state into an “epicenter of policies of hatred, division and intolerance” and demanded its immediate withdrawal.
The open letter with 104 signatories, including the former national security adviser Shivshankar Menon, former Secretary of Foreign Affairs Nirupama rao and former adviser to Prime Minister TKA Nair, said: “… UP, once … the cradle of Ganga-Jamuna civilization, has become the epicenter of the politics of hate, division and intolerance, and the institutions of government are now impregnated with communal poison “.
The letter cited cases of minorities allegedly targeted, including the case of Moradabad in which two men were allegedly dragged by Bajrang Dal activists to the police who arrested them on charges that one of them had forced a Hindu girl to marry him.
“The inexcusable thing is that the police remained silent while the guards harassed and interrogated the innocent couple. (The woman) suffered a miscarriage, possibly as a result of the harassment, ”the letter read, citing a newspaper report.
He said the anti-conversion ordinance is “being used as a stick to especially victimize Indian men who are Muslim and women who dare to exercise their freedom of choice.”
Although the different superior courts, including the HC of Allahabad, have unequivocally ruled that the choice of the partner is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution, UP is happily undermining that very Constitution, ”the letter said.
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