What right does the Congress, which is accused of supervising a heinous genocidal campaign against Sikhs in 1984, have to criticise Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi over the 2002 riotsIJ This is exactly the question a senior civil servant asked through a newspaper article to invite the wrath of Kerala’s Congress-led UDF Government.
The Kerala Cabinet has decided to remove the 1988 batch IAS officer, Dr B Ashok, from the post of Vice-Chancellor, Kerala Veterinary University, for writing an article titled What If Modi Visits Sivagiri in a newspaper on his April 24 visit on to the Sivagiri Mutt at Varkala in Thiruvananthapuram district to inaugurate a spiritual-cultural conclave.
The Government move has already created sharp divisions among senior civil servants in the State and critics have termed it as an indication of the Congress’s intolerance towards political adversaries. The State BJP lashed out at the Government for the move saying that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his associates were victims of ‘Modi-phobia’.
“It is true that the Gujarat Government might not have been effective in preventing the killings (in 2002) but such genocidal riots had followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi,” Ashok said in the article. He had also criticised Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for not accepting the invitation to speak at the function at the Mutt.
Ashok wrote in the article that if Rahul Gandhi wanted to be a national leader he should have attended the Mutt function and delivered a scholarly speech on the vision of its founder Sree Narayana Guru, Kerala’s great social reformer. “(Rahul’s refusal to attend the function) reveals that his sociological awareness needs strengthening,” he wrote.
Critics say that the criticism in the article against Rahul Gandhi is what could have piqued the Congress-led Government more than the indirect defence it offered for Modi’s visit and the reference to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. However, Ashok explained that his article had not violated the civil service rules in any way.
The Government had in 2011 decided to sack Ashok as vice-chancellor for alleged violation of service rules but the Kerala High Court had through an order reinstated him. In this context, the Government’s present move is to take action against him by completing all formalities so that he would have no room for escape.
Ashok is now charged with other acts of violation of service discipline like criticising senior bureaucrats in front of IAS trainees and refusing to adhere to requisite formalities while calling on the Chief Secretary. However, Ashok said he was not in the habit of being impertinent or talking to colleagues roughly.
Both the Congress-led ruling UDF and the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF had reacted to Modi’s recent visit with intolerance with representatives from both sides staying away from the function at which he spoke. Prior to that, State labour Minister Shibu Baby John had come under heavy attack for calling on Modi at Ahmedabad reportedly without the clearance of Chandy.
Authorities in Kerala are being accused of getting more and more intolerant towards the independent activities of civil servants. Additional Director General of Police B Sandhya, also a poet, was recently forced to give explanation to DGP KS Balasubramaniam for publishing a poem in which she had criticized politicians, bureaucrats and the media.