CCG urges serving civil servants to uphold constitution and resist ‘partisan aims’
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The Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), a collective of former officers of the All-India Services, on Wednesday (Oct 07, 2026) urged serving civil servants to abide by the Constitution, saying “so many civil servants seem to have surrendered their independence of authority and discretion granted to them to allow ‘party objectives’ to succeed”.
In an open letter, the CCG said constitutional values are “openly violated” and democratic dialogue is “virtually absent, with dissent often labeled as ‘anti-national'”. “During the last decade, the Union government has rarely adopted a process of dialogue and discussion to frame policies or solve problems,” it said, referring to demonetisation, the Goods and Services Tax, repeal of Article 370, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, farm bills, new penal laws, delimitation of constituencies and the “subsequent NEET fiasco”.
“The most egregious example of willful disregard for constitutional ethics is the current Election Commission of India (ECI) (which currently consists entirely of ex-IAS officers) bringing inexplicable changes to voter registration processes. In introducing the arbitrarily designed SIR, they have used their constitutional powers to transform what was then a routine administrative procedure into a measure designed to exclude millions of unscrupulous and unscrupulous voters. Party and political goals,” she argued CCG.
By shifting the burden to citizens to become voters and produce documentary evidence of their legitimacy, “overturning the natural presumption of citizenship that existed in their favor” and introducing lineage as the basis of voting rights, the ECI ensured that the stated purpose of “cleansing” the rolls created “panic and fear among a large section of the Indian population,” it said.
“As former colleagues, we find it painful that, except at the highest levels of the ECI, so many civil servants appear to have surrendered their independence of authority and discretion granted to them to allow partisan objectives to succeed,” it claimed.
The CCG also alleged that officials from central agencies such as the Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation, Narcotics Control Bureau and the police were “complicit in unnecessarily harassing individuals and institutions deemed opposed to the government of the day”.
“Cases are registered under the provisions of draconian laws such as UAPA, PMLA and NDPS: investigations can drag on endlessly, with the very process of justice becoming a punishment, given the cumbersome course of trial and difficult bail conditions,” the organization said.
She criticized the police response to an attempt by protesters to march from Jantar Mantar to Parliament on 20 July, expressing concern over “senior officials facilitating Kanwar yatras while targeting minority establishments, along with communal hate speech, violence and selective demolitions”.
The CCG also accused the Department of the Environment of “abandoning its regulatory role” and becoming “a middleman for big industry”. It said green disposals increased 20-fold between 2018 and 2022, from 577 to more than 12,000 in a single year. The letter also highlighted the Great Nicobar project and the issues relating to the Aravallis.
“We neither claim the moral high ground nor wish to lecture you on the primary loyalty you owe as civil servants to the Constitution of India. We are fully aware of the fact that the erosion in strict adherence to constitutional principles began long before the present regime came to power and then as now the spineless prevailed over those who stood up for principles,” he added.
Published – October 7, 2026 10:50 PM IST