Political vendetta

The second chargesheet filed against  the whistleblower Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka by the state government  in a span of a few months shows that he is being hounded by the political masters.

He is known as an upright official who has stuck to correct enforcement  of laws and rules and has upheld public interest in the face of many pressures. That this has not been taken kindly by the political authorities is seen by the fact that he was transferred over 40 times in his 20 years of  tenure in the administration. The state now has a Congress government but Khemka’s experience was not very different during earlier regimes also. The chargesheet now being filed against  him is on a flimsy ground and it is clear that he is being  harassed for an earlier action.

The officer, when he was the director-general of land consolidation and records in the state last year, had found the controversial land deal between Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law  Robert Vadra and a reality major irregular and cancelled the mutation of the land. For this he was transferred on the charge of official misconduct and acting beyond his powers and charge-sheeted.

After about five months in his new position at the Haryana Seeds development Corporation he has again been chargesheeted  for low sale of wheat seeds and causing loss to the exchequer. The charge does not carry conviction because no action had been taken in similar situations in the past against other officials. He has again been transferred, this time to the state’s archives and archaeology department.

There is no doubt that the official is being punished for his honest and correct action in the case of the Robert Vadra land deal. He has himself written to the chief secretary of the state that taking a disciplinary action without giving him an opportunity to explain his position amounts to victimisation. The intention is also to humiliate him in public. 

Governments try to browbeat upright officials who discharge their duties without fear and favour. This has happened not only in Haryana but in other states too, as the recent case of Durga Shakti Nagpal in UP shows. This erodes the confidence of the officials and their ability to act impartially. However it should be appreciated that there  are some officials who stand up to the pressures at great cost.