The bleeding-heart platoons of retired civil servants, whose sense of justice and fair play was never outraged during the glorious UPA days, are back in action. They might have taken a cue from their senior colleague Yashwant Sinha to make a nuisance of themselves. Whatever... In an open letter, 49 of these retired civil servants have urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reach out to the families of the Kathua and Unnao rape victims to "seek their forgiveness". The letter adds: "The bestiality and the barbarity involved in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old child shows the depths of depravity that we have sunk into. In post-independence India, this is our darkest hour and we find the response of our government, the leaders of our political parties inadequate and feeble. At this juncture, we see no light at the end of the tunnel and we hang our heads in shame. Our sense of shame is all the more acute because our younger colleagues who are still in service, especially those working in the districts and are required by law to care for and protect the weak and the vulnerable, also seem to have failed in their duty". So far, so good. But, then, the letter spills the beans. It says "Prime Minister, we write to you not just to express our collective sense of shame and not just to give voice to our anguish or lament and mourn the death of our civilizational values - but to express our rage. Rage over the agenda of division and hate your party and its innumerable, often untraceable offshoots that spring up from time to time, have insidiously introduced into the grammar of our politics, our social and cultural life and even our daily discourse. It is that which provides the social sanction and legitimacy for the incidents in Kathua and Unnao". Needless to say, the letter is full of political bombast, grandiloquence, and magniloquence. Hence, the question needs to be asked why these 'great minds and souls' are not joining the political battle for providing their 'great' leadership to the country. The letter is signed by the following: 1. SP Ambrose, IAS (Retd). Former Additional Secretary, Ministry of Shipping and Transport, GoI 2. Vappala Balachandran, IPS (Retd). Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI 3. Chandrashekhar Balakrishnan. IAS (Retd). Former Secretary, Ministry of Coal, GoI 4. Pradip Bhattacharya, IAS (Retd). Former Additional Chief Secretary, Development & Planning and Administrative Training Institute, Govt. of West Bengal 5. Meeran C Borwankar, IPS (Retd). Former DGP, Bureau of Police Research and Development, GoI 6. Sundar Burra, IAS (Retd). Former Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra 7. Javid Chowdhury, IAS (Retd). Former Health Secretary, GoI 8. Anna Dani, IAS (Retd). Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra 9. Surjit K. Das. IAS (Retd). Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Uttarakhand 10. Vibha Puri Das. IAS (Retd) Former Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GoI 11. Nareshwar Dayal. IFS (Retd). Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom 12. Keshav Desiraju, IAS (Retd). Former Health Secretary, GoI 13. M.G. Devasahayam, IAS (Retd). Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana 14. Sushil Dubey, IFS (Retd). Former Ambassador to Sweden 15. K.P. Fabian, IFS (Retd). Former Ambassador to Italy 16. Meena Gupta, IAS (Retd). Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI 17. Ravi Vira Gupta, IAS (Retd). Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India 18. Wajahat Habibullah, IAS (Retd). Former Secretary, GoI and Chief Information Commissioner 19. Sajjad Hassan, IAS (Retd). Former Commissioner (Planning), Govt. of Manipur 20. M.A. Ibrahimi, IAS (Retd). Former Chief Secretary (rank) Bihar 21. Ajai Kumar, Indian Forest Service (Retd). Former Director, Ministry of Agriculture, GoI 22. Arun Kumar, IAS (Retd). Former Chairman, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, GoI 23. Harsh Mander, IAS (Retd). Govt. of Madh