Khemka targets Khattar government over corruption

Senior Haryana bureaucrat Ashok Khemka appears arguably unsparing in his comments against the BJP-led M L Khattar government in the state.

He has questioned the ‘relevance and efficacy’ of an Anti-Corruption Day event where Chief Minister Khattar was the chief guest— Khemka, too, was present there— and spoke for long on anti-corruption issues from the dais on December 9.

On Wednesday morning, Khemka took to Twitter questioning if such events (Anti-Corruption Day) are instrumental in curbing corruption.

Perhaps hinting at the downside of the event, the whistle-blower bureaucrat said that “it only needs to be known how much money was spent on the event”.

During the event, while Khattar talked about the annual confidential report (ACR) of officials although he didn’t name any one.

This, perhaps, was a subtle reference hinting to the controversy when the chief minister downgraded Khemka’s ACR only to invite a reaction from the bureaucrat who took the matter to court and finally got a respite.

Last week, Khemka, a 1991-batch IAS officer and a topper in computer sciences from IIT-Kharagpur, was transferred for the 53rd time in the past 27 years— on an average, he has been transferred almost every six months.

After the government action posting him to an arguably insignificant department of archives, archaeology and museums, he slammed the move saying, “reward for honesty is humiliation”.