New Delhi: In an attempt to “set the record straight”, around 45 former civil servants have penned a letter to Stephen Sackur, the host of BBC’s HARDtalk, to refute a statement made during an interview in July by law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.Prasad, upon being asked by Sackur about an open letter that had been sent by the group to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2018 on the Unnao and Kathua rape cases, attacked the credibility of the group of ‘concerned citizens’ and claimed that most of the members of the group had made “a public appeal to vote against” BJP in 2014.Calling the allegation false, the group of retired civil servants reiterate that the group only came together in June 2017, which is why the question of their “having made an appeal to influence the 2014 parliamentary elections is absurd”.The full text of the letter is published below:§Dear Mr Sackur,In your interview with Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad, India’s Minister for Law and Justice in the ‘Hard talk’ show telecast on July 17, 2018, you had asked him to respond to the issues raised in the open letter our group of retired civil servants had written to the Prime Minister in April this year. Mr Prasad dismissively responded to your query by questioning our credibility on the ground that 90% of the members of this group were those who, in 2014, had made a public appeal to vote against Shri Narendra Modi.This is completely false. We came together as a group only in June 2017 to voice our concern against the decline in secular, democratic and liberal values enshrined in the Constitution and the climate of hate and fear which we believed, and still do, had been induced by the ruling establishment. We did not exist as a group until then, so the question of our having made an appeal to influence the 2014 Parliamentary Elections is absurd. We are proud of the fact that as a group we have no political affiliation with any political party whatsoever and as former civil servants who owe our allegiance to the Constitution of India we take the issue of our political neutrality very seriously. For the Minister to use a lie to raise doubts on our credibility and deflect attention from the issues we raised is contemptible.We are writing to you to set the record straight and we hope the BBC will give appropriate attention and publicity to our clarification and whenever possible, also give us an opportunity to present our point of view on the issues raised by us in our several open letters.Anita Agnihotri, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, GoISalahuddin Ahmad, IAS (Retd.), Former Chief Secretary, RajasthanV.S. Ailawadi, IAS (Retd.), Former Chairman, Electricity Regulatory CommissionGopalan Balagopal, IAS (Retd.), Former Special Secretary, Govt. of West BengalChandrashekhar Balakrishnan, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Coal, GoIPradip Bhattacharya, IAS (Retd.), Former Additional Chief Secretary, Development & Planning and Administrative Training Institute, Govt. of West BengalMeeran C. Borwankar, IPS (Retd.), Former DGP, Bureau of Police Research and Development, GoISundar Burra, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Govt. of MaharashtraSom Chaturvedi, IRTS (Retd.), Former Additional Member, Railway Board, GoISurjit K. Das, IAS (Retd.), Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of UttarakhandVibha Puri Das, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GoINareshwar Dayal, IFS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs and High Commissioner to the United KingdomKeshav Desiraju, IAS (Retd.), Former Health Secretary, GoIM.G. Devasahayam, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Govt. of HaryanaSushil Dubey, IFS (Retd.), Former Ambassador to SwedenK.P. Fabian, IFS (Retd.), Former Ambassador to ItalyRavi Vira Gupta, IAS (Retd.), Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of IndiaVivek Harinarain, IAS (Retd.), Govt. of Tamil NaduSajjad Hassan, IAS (Retd.), Former Commissioner (Planning), Govt. of ManipurDr. M.A. Ibrahimi, IAS (Retd.), Former Chief Secretary (rank), Govt. of BiharAjai Kumar, Indian Forest Service (Retd.), Former Director, Ministry of Agriculture, GoIArun Kumar, IAS (Retd.), Former Chairman, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, GoIBrijesh Kumar, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoIHarsh Mander, IAS (Retd.), Govt. of Madhya PradeshAditi Mehta, IAS (Retd.), Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of RajasthanSonalini Mirchandani, IFS (Resigned), GoISunil Mitra, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoIDeb Mukharji, IFS (Retd.), Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and Ambassador to NepalPranab S. Mukhopadhyay, IAS (Retd.), Former Director, Institute of Port Management, GoINagalswamy, IA&AS (Retd.), Former Principal Accountant General, Tamil Nadu & KeralaAmitabha Pande, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoINiranjan Pant, IA&AS (Retd.), Former Deputy Comptroller & Auditor General of IndiaN.K. Raghupathy, IAS (Retd.), Former Chairman, Staff Selection Commission, GoIJulio Ribeiro, IPS (Retd.), Former Adviser to Governor of Punjab & Ambassador to RomaniaManabendra N. Roy, IAS (Retd.), Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West BengalUmrao Salodia, IAS (Retd.), Former Chairman, Rajasthan Road Transport Corporation, Govt. of RajasthanDeepak Sanan, IAS (Retd.), Former Principal Adviser (AR) to Chief Minister, Govt. of Himachal PradeshArdhendu Sen, IAS (Retd.), Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of West BengalAbhijit Sengupta, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoIAftab Seth, IFS (Retd.), Former Ambassador to JapanRaju Sharma, IAS (Retd.), Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Uttar PradeshJawahar Sircar, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI, & CEO, Prasar BharatiRamani Venkatesan, IAS (Retd.), Former Director General, YASHADA, Govt. Of MaharashtraK. Sujatha Rao, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Minstry of Health and Family Welfare, GoI