272 citizens among them former Supreme Court judges, top civil servants and decorated military veterans—have issued a sharply worded open letter condemning
Election Commission orders removal of key Bihar officers after Mokama poll violence; one officer suspended and probe initiated (Photo: File)
272 citizens—among them former Supreme Court judges, top civil servants and decorated military veterans—have issued a sharply worded open letter condemning what they call the Leader of Opposition and the Congress Party’s “deliberate and conspiratorial attempts” to tarnish constitutional institutions, particularly the Election Commission of India.
The statement, released in New Delhi, is anchored by Justice S.N. Dhingra, former Judge of the Delhi High Court, and Nirmal Kaur, former DGP of Jharkhand. Among the prominent signatories are former Supreme Court judges Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Hemant Gupta; Justice Shubro Kamal Mukherjee, former Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court; and Justice S.M. Soni, former Gujarat High Court judge and Lokayukta.
Senior retired civil servants including former RAW chief Sanjeev Tripathi, former NIA Director Y.C. Modi, former Delhi Police Commissioner and UPSC member B.S. Bassi, former Kerala DGP T.P. Senkumar, former J&K DGP S.P. Vaid, former ITBP DG R.K. Pachnanda, former Tripura DGP B.L. Vohra, and former Chief Secretaries L.V. Subrahmanyam (Andhra Pradesh) and Deepak Singhal (Uttar Pradesh) are also signatories. The list includes several veteran diplomats such as former ambassadors Bhaswati Mukherjee, Laxmi Puri, Prabhat Shukla, Ashok Sajjanhar, Anil Trigunayat and Deepak Vohra.
From the armed forces, senior military veterans like Lt Gen V.K. Chaturvedi (Retd), Lt Gen Arvind Sharma (Retd), Lt Gen Nitin Kohli (Retd), Lt Gen U.S.P. Sinha (Retd), Lt Gen Narender Singh (Retd), Vice Admiral Raman Puri (Retd), Vice Admiral Abhay Karve (Retd), Air Marshal S.P. Singh (Retd) and Air Marshal Rajesh Kumar (Retd) have endorsed the letter.
In their statement, the 272 signatories say India’s democracy is facing an unusual assault—“not by force, but by venomous rhetoric directed at foundational institutions.” They argue that instead of presenting policy alternatives, certain political leaders are resorting to “provocative but unsubstantiated accusations” as a political strategy. The letter specifically targets the LoP's repeated claims that he possesses “open and shut proof” that the Election Commission is involved in vote theft, and his threat that he will “not spare” anyone in the Commission if involved. The signatories say such remarks amount to intimidation of constitutional authorities and note that no formal complaint with a sworn affidavit has been filed despite dramatic allegations of an “atom bomb” that would “leave the EC with no place to hide.”
The letter accuses the Congress leadership and allied groups—left-leaning NGOs, sympathetic academics and public figures—of joining a “theatrical and baseless” narrative attacking the EC, including claims that the Commission has become a “B-team of the BJP.” The signatories insist that these assertions collapse under scrutiny, pointing out that the EC has publicly explained its methodology, complied with court-directed verification, and undertaken both deletion of ineligible names and addition of new voters.
The signatories describe the Opposition’s behaviour as “impotent rage,” saying repeated electoral failures have led to “anger without a plan” and an attempt to blame institutions instead of introspecting. They argue that criticism of the EC disappears when the Opposition wins, but resurfaces when results go against them, calling this “selective outrage” that exposes political opportunism.
The group invokes the legacy of former Chief Election Commissioners T.N. Seshan and N. Gopalaswami, whose uncompromising approach, they say, turned the Commission into a formidable guardian of democracy. They urge the public to stand with the EC “not out of flattery but conviction,” and caution against turning constitutional bodies into “political punching bags.”
The letter also raises concerns about the presence of fake voters, non-citizens and bogus entries in electoral rolls, arguing that electoral integrity is a national security issue. It cites global examples—from the US and UK to Australia, Japan and several European countries—to underline that democracies worldwide strictly restrict voting rights to citizens.
The signatories express full faith in the Indian armed forces, judiciary, executive and specifically the Election Commission, asserting that leadership should be rooted “in truth, not theatrics; in ideas, not invective; in service, not spectacle.” They urge political parties to respect constitutional processes, present credible policy alternatives and accept democratic verdicts with grace.
