Farmer stir: Misleading narrative created by group of ex-civil servants, say retd judges, diplomats

NEW DELHI: To end the farmer's stir, the government has suggested a middle path of giving legal assurance about

MSP

and suspending the agri laws for 18 months, but a "motley" group of former civil servants is still trying to set a misleading narrative, claimed a group of retired bureaucrats and judges on Monday.


The statement from 180 people, including former RAW chief Sanjeev Tripathi, ex-CBI director

Nageshwar Rao

, and former DG of SSB and ex-police chief of Tripura B L Vohra, came days after 75 retired civil servants, in an open letter, alleged that the Centre's approach towards the farmers' protest has been an adversarial and a confrontationist one.

According to the statement on Monday, the government has at no stage declared that the genuine and real farmers are anti-nationals. "Even those indulging in criminality using farmers agitation as an opportunity have been handled with utmost restraint on Republic Day," it said.

Terming the group of former civil servants who wrote the open letter "politically motivated", the 'Forum of Concerned Citizens' in the statement said, "We are disturbed by another wholly misconceived statement from a motley group of retired civil servants, aimed at creating a misleading narrative."

It further said rather than inciting innocent farmers against a government with a vision to improve their plight, responsible retired civil servants should understand that there is some inherent structural inadequacy which is keeping the Indian farmers poorer.

"When the government has already suggested the middle path consisting of suspension of operation of the laws for 18 months... legal assurance about continuation of minimum support price, and withdrawal of some legislation containing penal clauses against the farmers in matters of environmental protection, there is no logic and rationale of sticking to a rigid demand for repeal of laws," the group said.

It also appealed that all should work for an amicable negotiated solution of the problem, rather than fanning divisiveness and playing into the hands of "anti-national conspirators and opportunistic political leaders".

The statement has also been signed by former chief justice of Rajasthan High Court Anil Deo Singh, former chief secretary of Kerala Anand Bose, former DGP of Jammu and Kashmir S.P Vaid,

Air Marshal

(retd) Dushyant Singh, Air Vice Marshal (retd) R P Mishra among others.

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