An open record of dissent

In Defence of the Republic: Upholding the Values at the Heart of India’s Democracy

Editors: Deb Mukharji, Meena Gupta, Amitabha Pande & Sundar Burra

Publisher: Speaking Tiger

Pages: 437

Price: Rs 599

Shortly before I started writing this review, an email arrived in my inbox. From the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), it had a prosaic subject line: “CCG Open Statement on 2024 Lok Sabha Elections”. Its contents, however, were not nonaligned. It asserted that during these polls, “concerns have been raised at many points about the fairness of the elections”. The CCG, at the outset of this book, declared for the umpteenth time that the group of former civil servants had “no affiliation with any political party but are strongly committed to the ideals enshrined in the Constitution of India.”
 

The email made a painful observation that “no Election Commission in the past has been as reluctant as the present one to discharge its duties, despite violations being repeatedly brought to its attention by responsible organisations and respected members of society.” The statement sought to “remind (in humility) each of the authorities and institutions charged with the integrity of the process of democratic government formation of their paramount duty to abide and uphold the Constitution of India. We would like to remind them of the oath they have taken in this regard at the time of their assumption of office.”
 

The group came together in 2017 by which time it became amply clear that India’s constitutional order was being consistently undermined. Since then, the CCG responded to almost every challenge or occasion when constitutional principles and ethos were attacked either directly by the state or its institutions, or by political forces symbiotically connected with the regime, which was turning a blind eye to various offensive acts. The response of this group, which sees itself as the conscience keeper of Indian society, has almost always been in the form of open statements or letters to various leaders holding constitutional offices. These have tended to get buried under fresh submissions voicing concern at a new set of violations of law or trampling of constitutional safeguards and may get lost amid the plethora of issues that may surface and require a reasoned response following the verdict on June 4.
 

This book is an attempt to record these missives in the form of a book that can act as a ready reckoner of the times since the group was established. This book enables us to revisit some of the debates which took place on these issues and how important sections of the civil society reflected on these matters. The CCG was established because its members felt that their “combined experience” would have the skills to pursue issues that periodically surfaced in an environment that was “becoming increasingly oppressive and (we) felt that we had a duty to our conscience and the nation to speak up.”
 

However, these “chronicles of dissent” do not remain just that. These open statements and letters are classified under various issue-based sections with each of these placed under a ‘lead’ essay(s) written by some of the well-known commentators and civil society activists, each of who have been pinned one of the expletives that have been conceived over the past decade or so.
 

The sequence of the sections under which these interventions are classified were undeniably decided on the basis of their occurrence in the past decade. It is no surprise that the first section is for statements and letters on the subject of “communal hate and violence”. While the two essays in this section are by the noted academic and activist, Apoorvanand and the well-known advocate, Anjana Prakash, the statements are a response to issues as varied as the ongoing violence in Manipur to the letter to the prime minister on harassment of the Christian community to one open letter to the Chief Justice of India on the Bilkis Bano case and a letter to corporations on the issue of advertising on media channels. It is likewise for other sections on Elections and Voting, Governance, Public Policy and Adminis­tration, Law and Judicial System and Conser­vation and the Rights of the Tribal Communities.
 

The essay “A Reasoned Engagement with Free Speech and Expression”, by Pamela Philipose in the section of fundamental rights and freedom of speech is a compact exposition of the CCG’s raison d'être and issues on which the group responded in the form of statements and letters. The essay notes that this group of retired civil servants did not choose to “keep silent in the face of rising tyranny” and that they joined forces “driven by the need to resist through their words and collective wisdom what they saw as an ‘alarming decline in the secular, democratic and liberal values enshrined in our Constitution’.” The essay points to the primacy the group gave to freedom of speech in an increasingly authoritarian order.

The four ‘afterwords’ by Harsh Mander, Aruna Roy, Julio Rebeiro and Siraj Hussain explain the “view from inside”, so to speak. While for Mr Mander, a notable civil servant turned social activist and commentator, the CCG’s existence is a reminder of not being alone, Ms Roy reminds readers of George Orwell’s quote that in “times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. This compendium is indeed a record of not one, but an entire series of revolutionary acts by a group who chose not to hang up their boots.

The writer is a NCR-based author and journalist. His books include The RSS: Icons of the Indian Right and Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.  He tweets at @NilanjanUdwin