A group of 50 former civil servants has called for the resignation of Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha after he garlanded eight men convicted of attacking and lynching cattle trader Alimuddin Ansari. Ansari was killed in Ramgarh area of Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh district on June 27, 2017.

Sinha had defended his actions when the Opposition criticised him. He claimed he was honouring the due process of law and pointed out that the Ranchi High Court suspended the sentences of the accused and released them on bail.

“Those convicted of the brutal lynching...are entitled to the due process of law, including getting bail pending a decision of the High Court on their conviction,” the former civil servants said. “It was, however, most unseemly of the Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Shri Jayant Sinha, to felicitate the convicts as though they were some revolutionaries in a freedom struggle. His subsequent feeble justifications on social media do not hold water.”

The former bureaucrats said this incident once again highlights the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s contempt for rule of law. The BJP leaders’ actions, be it in the case of the alleged rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua, or “their efforts to subvert due process of law in the brutal Rajsamand murder case”, indicate a majoritarian mindset that believes it is entitled to use the law to meet its own narrow ends, they alleged. “The larger and chilling message that Shri Sinha’s action sends out is that there is a licence to kill minorities and that those who are accused of such crimes will be enthusiastically supported financially, legally and politically,” the group claimed.

The former bureaucrats asked Sinha to step down, and said the BJP should apologise for sympathising with people accused of murder. “We also urge our colleagues in the civil services to firmly adhere to the rule of law and not be intimidated by the actions of powerful and influential groups which seek to spread the poison of disharmony and enmity in our multicultural society,” the group added.

Former Coal Secretary Chandrashekhar Balakrishnan, former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, ex-Ambassador to Sweden Sushil Dubey and former Indian Administrative Service officer Harsh Mander are among those who issued the statement.