The Constitutional Conduct Group, a group of former civil servants, on Wednesday (May 28) released a statement of solidarity with Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad who was arrested over his posts on Operation Sindoor.“We are greatly distressed by the grave criminal charges levelled against Mahmudabad and his subsequent arrest,” the statement said, calling the charges “outrageous and absurd.” “The main burden of his posts was to make eloquent and heartfelt calls for peace,” it noted.Calling the charges against Mahmudabad reminiscent of the colonial-era sedition law, the statement said that it “be a crime to seek justice for victims of lynching and bulldozer demolitions, or to call for peace and restraint.”The statement in full is produced below.§CCG OPEN STATEMENT ON THE ALI KHAN MAHMUDABAD CASE We are a group of former civil servants who have served in various capacities in the central and state governments. We owe no allegiance to any political party; our only loyalty is to the Constitution of India. We are greatly distressed by the grave criminal charges levelled against Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad and his subsequent arrest. Professor Ali Khan was charged for two of his social media posts related to Operation Sindoor. His posts were thoughtful and measured. In these he praised the restraint of the Indian Army. He noted the importance of the “optics” of Colonel Sofiya Qureshi as a face of the Indian armed forces during the press briefings at the time that the hostilities were underway, but added that the symbolism of this would be hypocritical if lynching and bulldozing of homes continued. But the main burden of his posts was to make eloquent and heartfelt calls for peace. He described the loss of civilian lives on both sides as “tragic” and warned against warmongering by civilians who have never experienced war. Denouncing the “blind bloodlust for war” displayed by some people on social media, he declared that warmongering “is actually disrespecting the seriousness of war and dishonouring the lives of soldiers whose lives are actually on the line.” For these posts, Professor Ali was charged under stringent sections of India’s new criminal law code, the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita. These include Section 152, which penalises acts “endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India”. This closely echoes the language of the colonial-era sedition law under the now repealed Indian Penal Code. Other crimes for which Professor Ali Khan is charged include Section 196(1)(b), which penalises acts that disturb communal harmony and public tranquillity; Section 197(1)(c), which targets “assertions likely to cause disharmony” and Section 299, which criminalises “deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings.” We regard the criminal charges against Professor Ali Khan as outrageous and absurd. It cannot be a crime to seek justice for victims of lynching and bulldozer demolitions, or to call for peace and restraint. It is noteworthy that despite the orders of the Supreme Court for taking suo moto action, even rampant hate speeches that openly call for violence and ethnic cleansing of Indian Muslims have rarely attracted these criminal charges of disloyalty to the nation and fostering religious hate. In the most recent case, after a minister from Madhya Pradesh (MP), Kunwar Vijay Shah, described Colonel Sofia Qureshi as the sister of terrorists, it required the MP High Court to direct the police to register an FIR against the minister. The High Court described the statements of the minister as “cancerous and dangerous”. Many students and faculty members came forward in heartening solidarity with Professor Ali Khan, even though the management of Ashoka University remained conspicuously silent about the unjust criminal targeting of their faculty. Faculty members took turns to sit outside places where the professor was detained. We were particularly touched by a statement by Professor Ali Khan’s students, who described him as compassionate and thoughtful, a teacher who loved his country and taught his students respect for the values of secular democracy spelt out in our Constitution. After his arrest and police remand, we were relieved that the Supreme Court granted him interim bail. But, with due respect, we are dismayed by some of the comments made by the bench and the conditions of bail that were laid down. The bench made mystifying allusions to “dog-whistling” in the professor’s social media tweets, criticising his “choice of words” and charging him with seeking “cheap publicity”. The bench ordered the surrender of the professor’s passport and the appointment of a Special Investigation Team to “holistically understand the complexity of the phraseology employed and for proper appreciation of some of the expressions used in the two posts.” It is beyond our comprehension how three police officers could be equipped to extract hidden meanings from a post written in elegant and straightforward English. The Supreme Court disapproved of public displays of solidarity with the professor, handing out a stern warning to academics and students who supported Professor Ali Khan with the words “we know how to handle them also”. The learned judges also directed the professor to make no further statements about the India-Pakistan hostilities. At a time when the country is deluged with social media posts and speeches of hatemongering and warmongering, it is a matter of painful irony that calls for peace by a political scientist are silenced. It is noteworthy that despite the orders of the Supreme Court for taking suo moto action, even rampant hate speeches that openly call for violence and ethnic cleansing of Indian Muslims have rarely attracted criminal charges of disloyalty to the nation and fostering religious hate.We are quite disturbed by the deviation from defence of free speech, which has been upheld by the Supreme Court in numerous cases, including Arnab Goswami vs. Union of India and even recently in the case of Imran Pratapgarhi vs. State of Gujarat. In the latter case, Justice Oka pronounced that “in a healthy democracy, the views or thoughts expressed by an individual or group of individuals must be countered by expressing another point of view”. Even if such speech is opposed by many people, it must still be “respected and protected”. That judgment notably offered advice to judges who might personally dislike certain articulations. Even in such cases, it was their “duty to uphold” and “zealously protect” the fundamental rights under Article 19(1) of the Constitution. The perils and consequences of suppressing free speech by unjust application of criminal law can be profoundly corrosive for a society. Young journalist Saurav Das aptly describes the treatment of Professor Ali Khan by the police and courts as “a perfect example of how you make a nation of intellectually dead citizens, where critical inquiry is replaced by rote repetition and progressive voices are muzzled to make space for conformist, mediocre opinions. This is how a society dies, where the proliferation of free thought is choked, through a slow, judicially sanctioned suffocation of intellectual life”. SATYAMEVA JAYATE Constitutional Conduct Group (79 signatories, as below)1. Anita Agnihotri IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Social Justice Empowerment, GoI2. Chandrashekar Balakrishnan IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Coal, GoI3. Sharad Behar IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh4. Aurobindo Behera IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Odisha5. Madhu Bhaduri IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Portugal6. K.V. Bhagirath IFS (Retd.) Former Secretary General, Indian Ocean Rim Association, Mauritius 7. Nutan Guha Biswas IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Police Complaints Authority, Govt. of NCT of Delhi8. Ravi Budhiraja IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, GoI9. R. Chandramohan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Secretary, Transport and Urban Development, Govt. of NCT of Delhi10. Rachel Chatterjee IAS (Retd.) Former Special Chief Secretary, Agriculture, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh11. Purnima Chauhan IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Administrative Reforms, Youth Services & Sports and Fisheries, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh12. Gurjit Singh Cheema IAS (Retd.) Former Financial Commissioner (Revenue), Govt. of Punjab13. F.T.R. Colaso IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Karnataka & former Director General of Police, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir14. Anna Dani IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra15. P.R. Dasgupta IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Food Corporation of India, GoI16. M.G. Devasahayam IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana17. Kiran Dhingra IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, GoI18. Sushil Dubey IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Sweden19. K.P. Fabian IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Italy20. Prabhu Ghate IAS (Retd.) Former Addl. Director General, Department of Tourism, GoI21. H.S. Gujral IFoS (Retd.) Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Govt. of Punjab22. Meena Gupta IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI23. Ravi Vira Gupta IAS (Retd.) Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India24. Rasheda Hussain IRS (Retd.) Former Director General, National Academy of Customs, Excise & Narcotics25. Siraj Hussain IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Agriculture, GoI26. Kamal Jaswal IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI27. Naini Jeyaseelan IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI28. Najeeb Jung IAS (Retd.) Former Lieutenant Governor, Delhi29. Vinod C. Khanna IFS (Retd.) Former Additional Secretary, MEA, GoI 30. Gita Kripalani IRS (Retd.) Former Member, Settlement Commission, GoI31. Brijesh Kumar IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI32. Ish Kumar IPS (Retd.) Former DGP (Vigilance & Enforcement), Govt. of Telangana and former Special Rapporteur, National Human Rights Commission33. Sudhir Kumar IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Central Administrative Tribunal34. Subodh Lal IPoS (Resigned)Former Deputy Director General, Ministry of Communications, GoI35. Sandip Madan IAS (Resigned)Former Secretary, Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission36. P.M.S. Malik IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Myanmar & Special Secretary, MEA, GoI37. Harsh Mander IAS (Retd.) Govt. of Madhya Pradesh38. Shivshankar Menon IFS (Retd.) Former Foreign Secretary and Former National Security Adviser39. Satya Narayan MohantyIAS (Retd.) Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission40. Sudhansu Mohanty IDAS (Retd.) Former Financial Adviser (Defence Services), Ministry of Defence, GoI41. Ruchira Mukerjee IP&TAFS (Retd.)Former Advisor (Finance), Telecom Commission, GoI42. Anup Mukerji IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Bihar43. Deb Mukharji IFS (Retd.) Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and former Ambassador to Nepal44. Jayashree Mukherjee IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra45. Shiv Shankar MukherjeeIFS (Retd.) Former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom46. Gautam MukhopadhayaIFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Myanmar47. Sobha Nambisan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Secretary (Planning), Govt. of Karnataka48. P. Joy Oommen IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Chhattisgarh49. Maxwell Pereira IPS (Retd.) Former Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi50. Alok Perti IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Coal, GoI51. G.K. Pillai IAS (Retd.) Former Home Secretary, GoI52. R. Poornalingam IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, GoI53. Rajesh Prasad IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to the Netherlands54. R.M. Premkumar IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra55. T.R. Raghunandan IAS (Retd.) Former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, GoI 56. N.K. Raghupathy IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Staff Selection Commission, GoI57. V.P. Raja IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission58. M. Rameshkumar IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal59. Madhukumar Reddy A.IRTS (Retd.) Former Principal Executive Director, Railway Board, GoI60. Vijaya Latha Reddy IFS (Retd.) Former Deputy National Security Adviser, GoI61. Julio Ribeiro IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Punjab62. Aruna Roy IAS (Resigned)63. Manabendra N. Roy IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal64. A.K. Samanta IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police (Intelligence), Govt. of West Bengal65. Deepak Sanan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Adviser (AR) to Chief Minister, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh66. G.V. Venugopala SarmaIAS (Retd.) Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Odisha 67. Ardhendu Sen IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal68. Abhijit Sengupta IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI69. Aftab Seth IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Japan70. Ashok Kumar SharmaIFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Finland and Estonia71. Mukteshwar Singh IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission72. Raju Sharma IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh73. Satyavir Singh IRS (Retd.) Former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, GoI74. Tara Ajai Singh IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka75. A.K. Srivastava IAS (Retd.) Former Administrative Member, Madhya Pradesh Administrative Tribunal76. Prakriti Srivastava IFoS (Retd.) Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests & Special Officer, Rebuild Kerala Development Programme, Govt. of Kerala 77. Anup Thakur IAS (Retd.) Former Member, National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission78. P.S.S. Thomas IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission79. Rudi Warjri IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica