Former students of the Sardar Patel Vidyalaya (SPV), the capital’s crib for children of liberal parents, have written to the management in protest against a scheduled visit by Union home minister Amit Shah to the school on Monday to commemorate Vallabhbhai Patel’s 147th birth anniversary.

In an email to principal Anuradha Joshi and the Gujarat Education Society that runs the Lutyens’ Delhi institution, 237 alumni said: “Particularly in the current climate of polarisation, inviting a political figure of his ilk will make the school vulnerable to criticism and will undermine its ethos, that stands for the Constitution and pluralism. This current climate of hate and violence spewing through the country has been responsible for the flagrant disregard of constitutional values.

“We are a school that encourages questioning, democratic ideals of dissent, argument and debate. We write to you from this place of warmth and the unwavering commitment to democracy that the school has imparted to us.”

“As a senior leader of the BJP — the political front of the RSS — Amit Shah stands in opposition to the ideals of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, that have been inculcated in us by SPV.”

The alumni added: “Despite attempts by the BJP to appropriate Patel in the recent years, it would be prudent to remember that he had banned the RSS in 1948 after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination while he was the home minister. In a communiqué issued on Feb 4, 1948, the Government of India had said it was banning the organisation ‘to root out the forces of hate and violence that are at work in our country and imperil the freedom of the Nation’. It also said that ‘undesirable and even dangerous activities have been carried on by members of the Sangh’ and that several RSS members ‘indulged in acts of violence’.

“The objectionable and harmful activities of the Sangh have, however, continued unabated and the cult of violence sponsored and inspired by the activities of the Sangh has claimed many victims. The latest and the most precious to fall was Gandhiji himself, the government had then said.

“In a letter to Hindu Mahasabha leader Shyama Prasad Mookerjee written on July 18, 1948, with regard to Gandhi ji’s assassination, Patel had said that ‘activities of the RSS constituted a clear threat to the existence of Government and the State’. If this was not enough, on September 11, 1948, Patel made his views explicitly clear when he wrote to M.S. Golwalkar stating that ‘all their (RSS) speeches were full of communal poison’ and that ‘it was not necessary to spread poison in order to enthuse the Hindus and organise for their protection’.

“In his speech at the Island Grounds in Madras on February 23, 1949, he spoke on dealing with the RSS. ‘They want that there should be Hindu Rajya or Hindu culture should be imposed by force. No government can tolerate this. There are almost as many Muslims in this country as in the part that has been partitioned away. We are not going to drive them away. It would be an evil day if we started that game…’

“It is abundantly clear from the above examples that the politics of the current ruling party represented by Amit Shah is at complete variance with the ideology of Sardar Patel, and therefore goes against the very ethos of what this school and this country stand for. Our Vidyalaya has taught us to respect diversity as we were encouraged to celebrate all festivals during morning assemblies, develop a curiosity for difference and the ability to learn from it.

“Our teachers encouraged critical thinking and radical imaginations to constantly fill us with hope and courage to speak truth to power. The choice of the chief guest undoes and undermines the spirit of the Vidyalaya, where we have always looked towards knowledge as a form of light that guides us towards justice, equality, and peace.”

The school’s alumni include Tata Consultancy Services former CEO S. Ramadorai, actresses Swara Bhasker and Richa Chadha and cricketer Ajay Jadeja. The list of signatories in the email sent at 6.30pm did not include any of them.

Actress Sarah Hashmi, one of the signatories, said the alumni had only three hours to collect endorsements after they received a confirmation of the programme. Principal Joshi did not respond to calls and a message from this newspaper.

Hashmi, niece of slain communist theatre person Safdar Hashmi, told The Telegraph: “Our school stands for the values of Sardar Patel and not hatred and communalism. Amit Shah has repeatedly shown that he stands for those ideas…. The release of the Bilkis Bano case convicts happened under the supervision of the home ministry, Shah, and PM Modi….”

Hashmi finished school in 2006 and has appeared in films such as Dil Dhadakne Do and the award-winning Bebaak.

Asked why she wasn’t as cautious as many others in the film industry while talking politics, she replied: “It’s OK if I am trolled and people don’t watch my films for signing this petition. We have to speak against what is unfair, undemocratic and communal, otherwise communal forces will win.”