Immediately after M J Akbar, Union Minister for External Affairs, announced his resignation from the Council of Ministers several senior civil servants underlined that it couldn’t be a mere coincidence that hours before M J submitted his resignation ‘The Constitutional Conduct Group’ (CCG) in its ‘open letter’ to the President of India (with a copy to PM) had expressed its outrage at the inability of the government to take appropriate action against him.

 

The letter bearing the signature of over a hundred former civil servants said "We look forward to you to uphold the dignity of the many women who have put their reputations at stake in making these allegations,". The CCG, in its letter, maintained that in the aftermath of the allegations of sexual harassment made by as many as sixteen women against Mr Akbar should have stepped down from office or be removed from the Union Council of Ministers.

 

Former civil servants who joined hands together and came up with the ‘open letter’ are;

 

1. Anita Agnihotri, IAS (Retd.), former secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, GoI

 

2. V.S. Ailawadi, IAS (Retd.) former chairman, Electricity Regulatory Commission

 

3. S.P. Ambrose, IAS (Retd.) former additional secretary, Ministry of Shipping & Transport, GoI

 

4. Gopalan Balagopal, IAS (Retd.) former special secretary, Govt. of West Bengal

 

5. Chandrashekhar Balakrishnan, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, Coal, GoI

 

6. Meeran C Borwankar, IPS (Retd.) former DGP, Bureau of Police Research and Development, GoI

 

7. Sundar Burra, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra

 

8. Som Chaturvedi, IRTS (Retd.) former additional member, Railway Board, GoI

 

9. Kalyani Chaudhuri, IAS (Retd.) former additional chief secretary, Govt. of West Bengal

 

10. Javid Chowdhury, IAS (Retd.) former health secretary, GoI

 

11. Anna Dani IAS, (Retd.) former additional chief secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra

 

12. Surjit K. Das, IAS (Retd.) former chief secretary, Govt. of Uttarakhand

 

13. Vibha Puri Das, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GoI

 

14. Nitin Desai IES, (Retd.) former secretary and chief economic adviser, Ministry of Finance, GoI

 

15. Keshav Desiraju, IAS (Retd.) former health secretary, GoI

 

16. M.G. Devasahayam, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, Govt. of Haryana

 

17. K.P. Fabian, IFS (Retd.) former ambassador to Italy

 

18. Hirak Ghosh, IAS (Retd.) former principal secretary, Govt. of West Bengal

 

19. Tuktuk Ghosh, IAS (Retd.) former special secretary and financial adviser, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Shipping & Tourism, GoI

 

20. Meena Gupta, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI

 

21. Ravi Vira Gupta, IAS (Retd.) former deputy governor, Reserve Bank of India

 

22. Wajahat Habibullah, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, GoI and Chief Information Commissioner

 

23. Deepa Hari, IRS (Resigned)

 

24. Sajjad Hassan, IAS (Retd.) former commissioner (Planning), Govt. of Manipur

 

25. Siraj Hussain, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, Department of Agriculture, GoI

 

26. Dr. M.A. Ibrahimi, IAS (Retd.) former chief secretary (rank), Govt. of Bihar

 

27. Kamal Jaswal, IAS (Retd.) former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI

 

28. K. John Koshy, IAS (Retd.) former State chief information commissioner, West Bengal

 

29. Ajai Kumar Indian Forest Service (Retd.) former director, Ministry of Agriculture, GoI

 

30. Arun Kumar, IAS (Retd.) former chairman, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, GoI

 

31. Brijesh Kumar, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI

 

32. Subodh Lal, IPoS (Retd.) former deputy director general, Ministry of Communications, GoI

 

33. Harsh Mander, IAS (Retd.) Govt. of Madhya Pradesh

 

34. Aditi Mehta, IAS (Retd.) former additional chief secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan

 

35. Shivshankar Menon, IFS (Retd.) former Foreign secretary, GoI and Former National Security Adviser

 

36. Sonalini Mirchandani, IFS (Resigned) GoI

 

37. Sunil Mitra, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoI

 

38. Noor Mohammad, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, National Disaster Management Authority, GoI

 

39. Deb Mukharji, IFS (Retd.) former high commissioner to Bangladesh and former Ambassador to Nepal

 

40. Nagalswamy, IA&AS (Retd.) former principal Accountant General, Tamil Nadu & Kerala

 

41. Sobha Nambisan, IAS (Retd.) former principal secretary (Planning), Govt. of Karnataka

 

42. Surendra Nath, IAS (Retd.) former member, Finance Commission, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh

 

43. Amitabha Pande, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI

 

44. Niranjan Pant, IA&AS (Retd.) former Deputy Comptroller & Auditor General of India

 

45. Alok Perti, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, Ministry of Coal, GoI

 

46. T.R. Raghunandan, IAS (Retd.) former joint secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, GoI

 

47. N.K. Raghupathy, IAS (Retd.) former chairman, Staff Selection Commission, GoI

 

48. C. Babu Rajeev, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, GoI

 

49. M.Y. Rao, IAS (Retd.)

 

50. Julio Ribeiro, IPS (Retd.) former adviser to Governor of Punjab and former Ambassador to Romania

 

51. Aruna Roy, IAS (Resigned)

 

52. ManMohan Sagar, IPS (Retd.) former CMD, Assam Police Housing Corporation, Govt. of Assam

 

53. Umrao Salodia, IAS (Retd.) former chairman, Rajasthan Road Transport Corporation, Govt. of Rajasthan

 

54. Deepak Sanan, IAS (Retd.) former principal adviser (AR) to Chief Minister, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh

 

55. N.C. Saxena, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, Planning Commission, GoI

 

56. Ardhendu Sen, IAS (Retd.) former chief secretary, Govt. of West Bengal

 

57. Abhijit Sengupta, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI

 

58. Aftab Seth, IFS (Retd.) former ambassador to Japan

 

59. Ashok Kumar Sharma, IFS (Retd.) former ambassador to Finland and Estonia

 

60. Pravesh Sharma, IAS (Retd.) former additional chief secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh

 

61. Raju Sharma, IAS (Retd.) former member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh

 

62. Rashmi Shukla Sharma, IAS (Retd.) former additional chief secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh

 

63. Sujatha Singh, IFS (Retd.) former foreign secretary, GoI

 

64. Tirlochan Singh, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, National Commission for Minorities, GoI

 

65. Jawhar Sircar, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI, & CEO, Prasar Bharati

 

66. Narendra Sisodia, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoI

 

67. Dr.K.S. Subramanian, IPS (Retd.) former director general, State Institute of Public Administration & Rural Development, Govt. of Tripura

 

68. Sanjivi Sundar, IAS (Retd.) former secretary, Ministry of Surface Transport, GoI

 

69. Parveen Talha, IRS (Retd.) former member, Union Public Service Commission

 

70. P.S.S. Thomas, IAS (Retd.) former secretary general, National Human Rights Commission

 

71. Hindal Tyabji, IAS (Retd.) former chief secretary rank, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir

 

72. Ramani Venkatesan, IAS (Retd.) former director general, YASHADA, Govt. of Maharashtra