Nearly 100 retired bureaucrats, including a former national security adviser and five former directors-general of police, on Sunday stood up for civil servant turned activist Harsh Mander whom the solicitor-general has accused in the Supreme Court of making disparaging remarks against the court.

In an open letter, a copy of which has been sent to the lieutenant governor and police commissioner of Delhi, they accused the solicitor-general (SG) of misleading the court in the matter.

The letter was issued from the platform of Constitutional Conduct, which the retired bureaucrats had formed in mid-2017 to speak on issues of governance.

Mander is part of the group but was not involved in drafting the letter, the signatories said.

They argued that this was a fit case for filing a defamation suit against the SG and the deputy commissioner of Delhi police but said this was a decision for the defamed to take.

“We write this letter to bring to the notice of the general public how the SG 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.)”

Mander had petitioned the court seeking the registration of FIRs against certain political leaders for delivering hate speeches that have been blamed for the Delhi riots last month.

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.

On March 4, the SG alleged that Mander had made derogatory statements about the Supreme Court. When Mander’s lawyer denied this, the bench asked the SG to file an affidavit.

The letter stresses that the video link to Mander’s speech that was submitted with the affidavit was edited.

“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 says.

“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 letter quotes two operative parts of the speech to argue that if read in its entirety, the speech shows no disrespect for the court.

It quotes from the speech: “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.”

The letter goes on: “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.”

It further quotes Mander as saying: “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 per cent violence, they respond with 100 per cent. 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.”

After quoting the operative paragraphs in full, the retired civil servants have asked: “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 does the solicitor-general of India and the deputy commissioner of police seek to mislead the Supreme Court of India?”

The signatories include former NSA Shivshankar Menon, former DGPs Mohinderpal Aulakh, Meeran C. Borwankar, Aloke B. Lal, P.G.J. Nampoothiri and Julio Ribeiro, and several former bureaucrats who retired from some of the senior-most posts in the government.