Mahmudabad Bail: ‘Disturbed’ by Some Comments by SC Bench, Say Former Civil Servants

New Delhi: The Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), a collective of former civil servants, has condemned the “outrageous” and “absurd” charges against Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad, who is on interim bail right know.

A statement, signed by close to 80 former top bureaucrats, also expressed dismay at some comments and conditions laid down by the Supreme Court bench while granting bail to Mahmudabad.

“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,” read the statement.

Noting that the apex 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”, as also directing the professor to make no further statements about the India-Pakistan hostilities, the CCG said it was “a matter of painful irony” that calls for peace by a political scientist were silenced.

In contrast, they noted that despite the orders of the Supreme Court for taking suo motu action, “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. “

Read the full statement and list of signatories below:

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 2 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, GoI 2. Chandrashekar Balakrishnan IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Coal, GoI 3. Sharad Behar IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh 4. Aurobindo Behera IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Odisha 5. Madhu Bhaduri IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Portugal 6. K.V. Bhagirath IFS (Retd.) Former Secretary General, Indian Ocean Rim Association, Mauritius 4 7. Nutan Guha Biswas IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Police Complaints Authority, Govt. of NCT of Delhi 8. Ravi Budhiraja IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, GoI 9. R. Chandramohan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Secretary, Transport and Urban Development, Govt. of NCT of Delhi 10. Rachel Chatterjee IAS (Retd.) Former Special Chief Secretary, Agriculture, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh 11. Purnima Chauhan IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Administrative Reforms, Youth Services & Sports and Fisheries, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh 12. Gurjit Singh Cheema IAS (Retd.) Former Financial Commissioner (Revenue), Govt. of Punjab 13. F.T.R. Colaso IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Karnataka & former Director General of Police, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir 14. Anna Dani IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra 15. P.R. Dasgupta IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Food Corporation of India, GoI 16. M.G. Devasahayam IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana 17. Kiran Dhingra IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, GoI 18. Sushil Dubey IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Sweden 19. K.P. Fabian IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Italy 20. Prabhu Ghate IAS (Retd.) Former Addl. Director General, Department of Tourism, GoI 21. H.S. Gujral IFoS (Retd.) Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Govt. of Punjab 22. Meena Gupta IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI 23. Ravi Vira Gupta IAS (Retd.) Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India 24. Rasheda Hussain IRS (Retd.) Former Director General, National Academy of Customs, Excise & Narcotics 25. Siraj Hussain IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Agriculture, GoI 26. Kamal Jaswal IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI 27. Naini Jeyaseelan IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI 28. Najeeb Jung IAS (Retd.) Former Lieutenant Governor, Delhi 29. Vinod C. Khanna IFS (Retd.) Former Additional Secretary, MEA, GoI 5 30. Gita Kripalani IRS (Retd.) Former Member, Settlement Commission, GoI 31. Brijesh Kumar IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI 32. Ish Kumar IPS (Retd.) Former DGP (Vigilance & Enforcement), Govt. of Telangana and former Special Rapporteur, National Human Rights Commission 33. Sudhir Kumar IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Central Administrative Tribunal 34. Subodh Lal IPoS (Resigned) Former Deputy Director General, Ministry of Communications, GoI 35. Sandip Madan IAS (Resigned) Former Secretary, Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission 36. P.M.S. Malik IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Myanmar & Special Secretary, MEA, GoI 37. Harsh Mander IAS (Retd.) Govt. of Madhya Pradesh 38. Shivshankar Menon IFS (Retd.) Former Foreign Secretary and Former National Security Adviser 39. Satya Narayan Mohanty IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission 40. Sudhansu Mohanty IDAS (Retd.) Former Financial Adviser (Defence Services), Ministry of Defence, GoI 41. Ruchira Mukerjee IP&TAFS (Retd.) Former Advisor (Finance), Telecom Commission, GoI 42. Anup Mukerji IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Bihar 43. Deb Mukharji IFS (Retd.) Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and former Ambassador to Nepal 44. Jayashree Mukherjee IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra 45. Shiv Shankar Mukherjee IFS (Retd.) Former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom 46. Gautam Mukhopadhaya IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Myanmar 47. Sobha Nambisan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Secretary (Planning), Govt. of Karnataka 48. P. Joy Oommen IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Chhattisgarh 49. Maxwell Pereira IPS (Retd.) Former Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi 50. Alok Perti IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Coal, GoI 51. G.K. Pillai IAS (Retd.) Former Home Secretary, GoI 52. R. Poornalingam IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, GoI 53. Rajesh Prasad IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to the Netherlands 54. R.M. Premkumar IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra 55. T.R. Raghunandan IAS (Retd.) Former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, GoI 6 56. N.K. Raghupathy IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Staff Selection Commission, GoI 57. V.P. Raja IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission 58. M. Rameshkumar IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal 59. Madhukumar Reddy A. IRTS (Retd.) Former Principal Executive Director, Railway Board, GoI 60. Vijaya Latha Reddy IFS (Retd.) Former Deputy National Security Adviser, GoI 61. Julio Ribeiro IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Punjab 62. Aruna Roy IAS (Resigned) 63. Manabendra N. Roy IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal 64. A.K. Samanta IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police (Intelligence), Govt. of West Bengal 65. Deepak Sanan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Adviser (AR) to Chief Minister, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh 66. G.V. Venugopala Sarma IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Odisha 67. Ardhendu Sen IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal 68. Abhijit Sengupta IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI 69. Aftab Seth IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Japan 70. Ashok Kumar Sharma IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Finland and Estonia 71. Mukteshwar Singh IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission 72. Raju Sharma IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh 73. Satyavir Singh IRS (Retd.) Former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, GoI 74. Tara Ajai Singh IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka 75. A.K. Srivastava IAS (Retd.) Former Administrative Member, Madhya Pradesh Administrative Tribunal 76. 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 Commission 78. P.S.S. Thomas IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission 79. Rudi Warjri IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica.