A group of retired civil servants on Thursday issued a fresh appeal against the vilification of civil rights activist Harsh Mander after Delhi police continued with its efforts to portray his December 16 comments at Jamia Millia Islamia university as a hate speech.

The same speech had earlier been cited by the solicitor-general of India to accuse Mander of making disparaging remarks against the Supreme Court. Mander was accused of saying at Jamia that the citizenship issue should be taken up on the streets as he had faith in neither the judiciary nor Parliament.

The retired bureaucrats, who have formed a collective named Constitutional Conduct, had written an open letter in March pointing out that the government was citing the former civil servant’s speech selectively and without context.

Thursday’s appeal flags the recent chargesheet filed by Delhi police in the murder case of Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma during the Delhi riots in February.

“The early paras indicate the continued position of the Delhi police, claiming that his Jamia speech on December 16 was a hate speech instigating people to violence and against the SC. They write that he used a facade of peace but it was a hate speech!

“The other two charged with hate speech here are Sharjeel (Imam, an activist) and (Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar) Azad. This indicates the story that they are trying to build up for the larger conspiracy. It is likely that they will become co-accused in this way in many or all the riot cases, in addition to the conspiracy case,” the retired bureaucrats, including former national security adviser Shivshankar Menon, noted.

It has been the contention of Constitutional Conduct that if the full video of the speech is taken into account, it would reveal the falsehood of the allegations that Mander, who took early retirement from the IAS years ago, had incited violence in any manner or been contemptuous of the Supreme Court.

“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,” the retired bureaucrats had said in their March 22 open letter.

Referring to the speech, Thursday’s appeal points out that Mander’s philosophy is evident in it. “We have learnt from Gandhiji 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,” it quoted Mander as saying.

As for the charge that he was contemptuous of the Supreme Court, Constitutional Conduct said: “It is clear that it is baseless because all he did was to say: ‘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’.”

The signatories to the appeal include retired IPS officers Meeran C. Borwankar, Amitabh Mathur and S. Gopal, besides several from the IFS and the IAS.