India, Jan. 27 -- Bareilly city magistrate Alankar Agnihotri on Monday resigned from service alleging a "complete erosion of democratic and republican values", while giving the examples of the new University Grants Commission (UGC) rules and the row over Swami Avimukteshwaranand being stopped from taking a holy dip at Magh Mela.

His five-page resignation letter, addressed to the UP governor Anandiben Patel and the Election Commission of India, Agnihotri -- a 2019-batch Provincial Civil Service officer -- said he was quitting the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Civil Service (UPPCS) as there was neither democracy nor a republic left in the central and state governments, asserting that the system had degenerated into what he termed as a "bhramtan...