UP has become epicentre of hate politics: 104 ex-IAS officers write to Yogi Adityanath

The letter was signed by some eminent former IAS officers including former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and former Adviser to the Prime Minister TKA Nair.

Demanding that the "illegal ordinance be withdrawn forthwith", the signatories stated that all politicians, including the Chief Minister, need to "re-educate yourselves about the Constitution which you... have sworn to uphold".

"... UP, once known as the cradle of the Ganga-Jamuna civilisation, has become the epicentre of the politics of hate, division and bigotry, and institutions of governance are now steeped in communal poison," the letter said.

"... a series of heinous atrocities committed by your administration against young Indians across Uttar Pradesh... Indians who are simply seeking to live their lives as free citizens of a free country."

The letter cited multiple instances of minorities being targeted in the state, including a horrific case from UP's Moradabad earlier this month in which two men were allegedly accosted by the Bajrang Dal activists, dragged to the police and arrested on allegations that one of them had forced a Hindu girl to marry him.

The Allahabad High Court on Monday ruled in favour of an interfaith couple stating that the woman is an adult who "wants to live with her husband" and had the "right to live life on her terms".

The had court also ruled that she is free to move as per her choice without any restriction or hindrance being created by a third party.

The court had quashed an FIR registered against her husband in September in Uttar Pradesh's Etah district.

Uttar Pradesh last month adopted an anti-conversion ordinance amid debate over "love jihad" - the right-wing conspiracy theory that Muslim men manipulate Hindu women to have them converted to their religion.