In an extraordinary display of institutional dissent, a group of 93 former top civil servants, police officers, diplomats, and members of the All India and Central Services has issued a searing open letter condemning the police action against student protesters in the national capital on July 20, 2026, describing it as "unacceptable," "illegal and disproportionate," and a grave violation of constitutional governance that threatens to erode public trust in democratic institutions.
The Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), a collective of retired officials with no political affiliation that describes itself as committed to promoting the foundational values of the Republic and the observance of norms of constitutional conduct, addressed its letter to the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, and the Commissioner of Police, expressing deep shock and anguish over what it termed the "brutal police action against peaceful student protesters" who were ventilating "legitimate nationwide grievances" during and after the Sansad Chalo march in Delhi on July 20.
According to the letter, reports indicate that Delhi Police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel used pellet guns, electrical batons or tasers, and tear gas against demonstrators, resulting in serious injuries to several youth, including one young protester who required surgery to remove pellets from near his eye and neck. A 15-year-old child was among those injured and hospitalized, the group noted. Disturbing visuals cited by the CCG also showed several policemen and RAF personnel, some with no name tags, along with plainclothes men and policemen in civilian attire, "mercilessly lashing out at protestors, including young women, with lathis, in some cases embedded with nails."
The letter further alleged sexual misbehavior by at least one policeman, demanding that he be identified and given exemplary punishment. It also raised serious questions about the suspicious parking of a truck filled with stones despite strict checking in a high-security area and alleged stone-throwing by policemen, as well as the questionable rounding up and movement of protesters from police station to police station without access to lawyers. The CCG asserted that this may well be the first time that such force has been used against unarmed young protesters agitating for their legitimate right to education and work on such a scale anywhere in India.
Even more alarming, the letter continued, were visuals of armed police with guns trained at the gates of Parliament in case the march reached there. The group noted that orders were issued on July 23 to close down offices and shops in central Delhi on top of disruptions in mass transport and metro services to make it difficult for citizens to reach the protest site, and to shut down internet services. The deployment of Facial Recognition Vans to live-scan peaceful protesters was described as constituting a violation of the citizen's fundamental right to privacy, enunciated by the Supreme Court in the landmark Puttaswamy case, which the group warned could be weaponised as tools of intimidation and suppression of fundamental rights. Most worrying, the letter added, were orders and visuals deploying CRPF in riot gear to the protest sites.
The CCG characterized such use of force in the national capital against young citizens exercising their democratic rights as unacceptable and reflecting "unfortunate precedents earlier set in JNU and Jamia Millia Islamia in 2019 and 2020." The group also noted that the state had been derelict in its duty of orderly management of crowds at the protest site and during the protest march, leaving that entirely to the organizers, and in fact creating stampede-inducing situations by the use of barricades to confine protesters in small spaces.
Under public pressure, the letter observed, a "meaningless dialogue" was started with photo-op visits to the injured in hospitals, while the list of those arrested has not been released. The Government has also not uttered a word on those NEET candidates who committed suicide, the group added. Perhaps the greatest shock of all, the CCG stated, was the Supreme Court's reported refusal to hear a plea against police action on the young protesters on the grounds that they did not have time to "waste" to watch videos.
Emphasizing that in a democracy the right to peaceful protest is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution, the CCG pointed out that students, many as young as 14 years old, took to the streets not out of mischief or to indulge in vandalism but because of the chronic failure of examination and evaluation systems to ensure a fair deal to these students, and out of desperation over their futures imperiled by repeated examination scandals, paper leaks, administrative failures and policy mismanagement in the education sector.
These young citizens, the group stressed, deserve empathy, dialogue, protection and solutions, not pellets and lathis.
The group expressed deep disturbance that the use of police repression and state violence is increasingly becoming the norm to counter any public protest or agitation, calling this especially reprehensible when the protesters are students as young as thirteen and fourteen years, many of them girls. It also found it beyond comprehension that instead of engaging in meaningful dialogue, the government has chosen suppression and deflection, emphasizing that students are the future of the nation and that refusing to address their genuine grievances while deploying force against them marks an indifference to the future of the entire country, erodes public trust and violates the spirit of constitutional governance.
The CCG made six specific demands in its letter:
First, an independent judicial inquiry into the police action of July 20, 2026, including the use of pellet guns and shock batons in Delhi.
Second, immediate suspension of and departmental action against officers responsible for ordering and using disproportionate force and impermissible techniques.
Third, unconditional release of any detained students, medical care for all injured, and compensation for all those injured in the police action in proportion to the seriousness of their injuries.
Fourth, immediate initiation of structured dialogue with student representatives on examination reforms, accountability of the National Testing Agency, and long-term changes in the education system.
Fifth, withdrawal of all police cases in respect of those protesters against whom there is no credible and independent evidence of committing any act of violence.
And sixth, review of Crowd Management Drill and instructions on use of force in police academies and training schools, along with psychological assessment of all candidates before recruitment into the police force.
The government, the CCG reminded, must remember that its primary duty is to serve the people, especially the youth who represent India's demographic dividend. Repression will only deepen alienation, while dialogue and accountability are the hallmarks of a mature democracy. The group urged the authorities to uphold the Constitution in both letter and spirit and to restore faith in democratic institutions before it is too late.
The letter concludes with the motto "Satyameva Jayate" and carries the signatures of 93 distinguished retired officials, including former Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh, former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, former Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung, former Chief Secretaries of several states, former Directors General of Police, and former ambassadors to multiple countries, underscoring the breadth and seniority of the signatories. Among them are former Secretaries to the Government of India from departments ranging from Environment to Social Justice, former members of the National Human Rights Commission, and former high commissioners to the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, and other nations. The signatories include Anita Agnihotri, Anand Arni, Mohinderpal Aulakh, Meeran Borwankar, Julio Ribeiro, Aruna Roy, and numerous other veteran administrators whose collective experience spans decades of service to the Indian state.
The protest, which drew thousands of students to the streets, was part of a nationwide agitation over recurring examination paper leaks and alleged administrative failures in the education sector that have imperiled the futures of millions of young aspirants.
The CCG's intervention, coming from the very ranks that once helmed the institutions now being criticized, represents one of the most significant public rebukes by former civil servants of the government's handling of public dissent in recent memory.
Comments
Post a Comment
NOTE: Hateful, abusive comments won't be published. -- Editor