◆◆◆

Press Statement 1

[Condemning the “motivated, compromised investigation and vilification” of social activist Harsh Mander, members of civil society, including academics, writers, rights activists and former civil servants, among others, have written a letter in solidarity with the former civil servant. The letter comes at a time when the Delhi Police has mentioned his name in a chargesheet filed in connection with the Delhi Riots in February this year.

The letter mentions that the Delhi Police has mentioned the names of Mander and other activists to “concoct” a chronology of the riots and create a “false narrative” around the same. The chargesheet in question said that Mander had “instigated the protestors” in a speech made in Jamia Millia Islamia on December 16, 2019.

The letter, signed by prominent civil society activists, says that to use Mander’s speech as an example of him inciting violence is “utterly deplorable. It is a deliberate and motivated attempt to implicate an outstanding peace loving, Gandhi follower, an activist par excellence, who is walking the path of non violence.” The letter added that it is an “attempt to target him” and implicate him in “false cases”.

The full text of the letter is as follows.]

Statement in Solidarity with Harsh Mander

We, the undersigned, condemn the manner in which the Delhi Police has mentioned the name of Harsh Mander and other activists, to concoct a ‘chronology’ and create a false narrative about the Delhi riots, in the chargesheet filed by them on FIR No.- 65/2020 of 26/02/2020.

Harsh Mander is a well known Human Rights Defender, a writer and a social activist. Harsh Mander was a civil servant who resigned from his job in the wake of Gujarat violence in 2002 and came forward to work tirelessly to build bridges of love in our society. He went on to start initiatives for the under-privileged, and religious minorities among others. He founded Aman Biradari and Karavan-E-Mohabbat. Both initiatives have contributed immensely to the betterment of Indian society. His current efforts to help the migrant workers, who had to tragically flee our cities in the wake of Corona lockdown, are commendable.

In the wake of the Delhi violence ( Feb. 2020), Harsh Mander had filed a petition before the Honorable Supreme Court, related to registering of FIRs against political leaders whose inflammatory speeches triggered the violence resulting in over 50 deaths. Instead of allowing the court to consider the petition, the Solicitor General of India derailed it, and gave a twist to the episode by arguing that Mr. Mander had in fact been contemptuous of the Honorable Supreme Court, and incited violence in a speech he gave at the Jamia Millia Islamia University on December 16th 2020. That speech, given publically, and video recorded, in fact spoke of love and constitutional rights.

The chargesheet now filed by the police continues this false narrative. Under the head – Brief Facts of the Case – Chronology Of Events Leading To Riots In North-East, Delhi (Point 17. Para 4) it says: ”Mr. Harsh Mander, who visited the site on 16/12/19 and instigated the protestors to not have faith in the Supreme Court and to fight their battle on road to get justice. He, however, used a façade of peace in a part of his speech”.

There cannot be anything more ridiculous than saying Harsh Mander used a “façade of peace.” He has devoted his entire life to the cause of peace and harmony in society.

The core part of his speech called for shunning violence and adopting Gandhian means of non violence in the agitation.

This is what he had said:

“What will be the future of this country – you all are the youth – what sort of country do you want to leave for your kids – where will this decision happen? One, it will happen on the streets, we have come out on the streets, but even beyond the streets, there is another place where this decision will take place. Which is the place in which this fight will eventually be decided? That is in our hearts, in my heart, in your heart, we have to give a response – if they want to fill our hearts with hate, if we respond with hate, hatred will become deeper”.

“If someone is attempting to bring darkness to the country, and we also do the same in order to fight, then the darkness will only become more severe. If there is darkness, then the only way that can be fought is by lighting a lamp. And if there is a huge storm, we will light a lamp against the darkness. The only answer we have to their hate is love. They will resort to violence, they will instigate us to indulge in violence but we will never carry out any violence. You must understand that it is their plan to instigate you towards violence so that when we commit 2% violence, they respond with 100%. We have learnt from Gandhi ji how to respond to violence and injustice. We will fight with non-violence. Anyone who instigates you toward violence or hatred, they are not your friends.”

Surely this speech can go down in history as an elaboration of Gandhian principles in  contemporary times. To use this speech to present Harsh Mander as someone instigating violence is  utterly deplorable. It is a deliberate and motivated attempt to implicate an outstanding peace loving , Gandhi follower, an activist par excellence ,who is walking the path of non violence. This is an attempt to target him, perhaps pull him into the police dragnet of false cases, and silence powerful and effective citizen’s voices against hate, divisiveness and for unity and compassion.

We strongly condemn the motivated, compromised investigation and vilification of a person with commitment to a just society, and demand that this is stopped forthwith.

Endorsed by:

(The full list of signatories is available on https://kractivist.org.)

◆◆◆

Press Statement 2

Ex-Civil Servants Decry Vilification of Harsh Mander for Speech During Anti-CAA Protests

Courtesy: Sabrangindia, 11 June 2020

[The continued harassment and vilification of students and activists opposing controversial the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) by the Delhi police is evidently out in the open. At the end of 2019, nationwide protests against the CAA and NRC took place, with most outrage coming from the capital, New Delhi, where Shaheen Bagh became an inspiration for others to lead a civil disobedience movement against the contentious Act and the NRC that was to follow. When the protests rolled into the New Year, several leaders from the ruling party and the media had already vilified the minorities and degraded their fight, calling them to be traitors.

In February 2020, what can only be called orchestrated violence against the minorities took place in the capital, with the police allegedly complicit in the attacks. However, these attacks which were clearly provoked after leaders owing allegiance to the ruling dispensation incited public sentiment through hate speech, were instead connected to a speech made by a civil activist and leader of Karwan-e-Mohabbat, Harsh Mander outside the Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMIU), accusing him of denigrating the Supreme Court of India and inciting violence. In light of this, a case was filed against him with the Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, presenting clipped versions of his speech to the Supreme Court.

In light of this, on 22 March 2020, 95 retired civil servants belonging to the Constitutional Conduct Group had penned an open letter, “In Defence of Harsh Mander” regarding the mischaracterization of his speech.

The complete letter of the Constitutional Conduct Group is as below. This so-called hate speech by Harsh Mander has been published in Janata in its 15 March 2020 issue.]

In Defence of Harsh Mander: An Open Letter to the Media

22 March 2020

1. We are a group of retired civil servants belonging to the All-India and Central Services from all over India. As a group, we do not subscribe to any particular political ideology but rather, focus upon issues that have a bearing upon the Indian Constitution. We have been holding Conclaves and writing Open Letters on matters of concern since we came together as the Constitutional Conduct Group in May 2017.

• We write this letter to bring to the notice of the general public how the Solicitor General (SG) of India has sought to mislead the Honorable Supreme Court (SC) in the matter of Harsh Mander’s speech at Jamia Millia Islamia on December 16, 2019. (Disclosure: Harsh Mander is a member of the group but has played no part in issue of this letter.) The background is that Harsh Mander, as a public-spirited citizen of India, had filed a petition before the Honourable Supreme Court in connection with the registering of F.I.R.s against certain political leaders for using hate speech and inciting violence that resulted in the deaths of more than 50 people in Delhi. On March 4, instead of responding to the contents of his petition, one of the highest law officers of the land alleged that Harsh Mander had made derogatory statements about the Supreme Court. When this was denied by Mander’s advocate, the SG was asked by the bench to file an affidavit.

• It seems that after an affidavit was filed by the Deputy Commissioner of Police to the effect that Harsh Mander had not only instigated violence but also been seriously contemptuous of the SC, the SC decided not to hear Harsh Mander’s case until the matter of his allegedly “derogatory remarks” was looked into. A link was provided to the video in the affidavit and a prayer was made to dismiss his petition and file charges of contempt against him. We understand, however, that the full video of the speech was not presented before the Court.

• We feel that had the full video been presented, it would have clearly brought out the falsehood of the allegations that he had incited violence in any manner or been contemptuous of the SC. It is apparent that the video-recording submitted by the SG and the police was an edited version comprising selectively chosen excerpts from the recording, which had been clipped in places so as to convey the impression that Harsh Mander had both instigated violence and committed contempt of the SC. We strongly feel that the speech has to be read in context, in sequence and in full to appreciate its message.

• When the speech is so read, it becomes apparent that Harsh Mander meant that the fight would ultimately be decided in people’s hearts and not in any other forum. The following paragraph makes it abundantly clear:

• “What will be the future of this country – you all are the youth – what sort of country do you want to leave for your kids – where will this decision happen? One, it will happen on the streets, we have come out on the streets, but even beyond the streets, there is another place where this decision will take place. Which is the place in which this fight will eventually be decided? That is in our hearts, in my heart, in your heart, we have to give a response – if they want to fill our hearts with hate, if we respond with hate, hatred will become deeper”.

• Harsh Mander further said: “If someone is attempting to bring darkness to the country, and we also do the same in order to fight, then the darkness will only become more severe. If there is darkness, then the only way that can be fought is by lighting a lamp. And if there is a huge storm, we will light a lamp against the darkness. The only answer we have to their hate is love. They will resort to violence, they will instigate us to indulge in violence but we will never carry out any violence. You must understand that it is their plan to instigate you towards violence so that when we commit 2% violence, they respond with 100%. We have learnt from Gandhi ji how to respond to violence and injustice. We will fight with non-violence. Anyone who instigates you toward violence or hatred, they are not your friends.”

• By what stretch of the imagination can such words be construed as being inciteful of violence when they refer to Mahatma Gandhi, father of the nation, who left us a priceless legacy of non-violence, truth-telling and compassion? By what inversion of meaning, by what distortion of facts and by what supreme disregard for the plain truth do the Solicitor General of India and the Deputy Commissioner of Police seek to mislead the Supreme Court of India?

• In our considered and collective opinion, there is a good case for filing a suit for defamation against both worthy gentlemen but that is a decision for the person defamed to take.

SATYAMEVA JAYATE

Yours sincerely,

CONSTITUTIONAL CONDUCT GROUP (with 95 signatories as below)

[The complete list of signatories is available on Sabrangindia website.]