Surjewala slams BJP govts in Haryana, UP for 'failing to protect' ex-woman IAS officer

Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Sunday slammed the BJP-led governments in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and accused them of failing to protect Rani Nagar, the Haryana cadre IAS officer who had resigned earlier this month citing 'personal safety on government duty' as the reason.

Nagar (35), who had moved to her hometown Ghaziabad in U.P., has alleged that a man tried to attack her with an iron rod in the area where she lives on Saturday evening and though she ran away her sister was injured. “What is the reason behind the constant, deadly attacks, the exploitation and atrocities on the only backward class woman IAS officer from the Gurjar community, Rani Nagar?,” the Congress' chief spokesperson asked. He also said “nobody in Haryana government lent an ear to the woes of the (ex) woman IAS officer. Why have BJP governments in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh failed to protect the woman IAS officer, who is also the daughter of Gurjar community?”.

Surjewala, in a statement, further asked, “why are the BJP governments in UP and Haryana not investigating the conspiracy behind the murder attempts on Haryana IAS officer, Rani Nagar?”. He also asked why the BJP governments had not taken a decision on the change of cadre of Rani Nagar from Haryana to UP. “The sheer incompetence and apathy of the Khattar government in not acting against those guilty of repeatedly attacking Rani Nagar constrained her to take the extreme step of submitting her resignation on May 4 from the IAS cadre itself and she mentioned in her resignation letter that she was forced to resign from the service for fear of her own personal safety,” said the Congress leader. He said on May 30 evening “a murderous attack was launched with iron rods on Rani Nagar and her sister in Ghaziabad, in which her sister Reema Nagar was injured”.

The Congress leader accused Haryana Chief Minister M L Khattar of maintaining “a conspiratorial silence despite dozens of complaints” on various issues the former officer faced in Haryana during her stint in the state. “CM Khattar did not deem it fit to at least call Nagar for a personal hearing, understand the history of repeated exploitation and take action against the guilty,” he said. Surjewala said that in December 2017 when Nagar was posted as SDM Dabwali in Sirsa district, an incident of criminal trespass into her house took place. He also mentioned that in June 2018, she accused an additional chief secretary-level bureaucrat of Haryana of harassing her, but no action was taken by the Khattar dispensation. Notably, on May 4, Nagar had resigned from IAS citing 'personal safety on government duty' as the reason for it. However, Nagar did not elaborate on what she meant by the reason of her resignation. She had also sent copies of the resignation to the president, prime minister, Haryana governor and the chief minister through e-mail.

“The reason for submitting this resignation is the personal safety on government duty," she had said in a letter to the chief secretary. She had later left Chandigarh for her hometown Ghaziabad with her sister. On May 7, Union Minister of State and Faridabad MP Krishan Pal Gurjar had in a series of tweets said that Khattar had “turned down” her resignation and has recommended to the Centre to change Nagar's cadre to her home state Uttar Pradesh. After her resignation, BSP president and former UP Chief Minister Mayawati had said the way a woman IAS officer had to resign on such grounds and return to her hometown in Ghaziabad was extremely unfortunate.

Mayawati had also questioned the government's silence on the episode. Nagar had come into limelight in June 2018, when she accused an additional chief secretary-level bureaucrat of harassing her. The state government had conducted an inquiry into the allegations, but the charges did not hold against the officer, a senior official had earlier said. In an earlier post on her Facebook page, Nagar, who was earlier living in the UT guest house of Chandigarh since 2018 along with her sister, had claimed that despite numerous complaints against the senior bureaucrat, no action was taken against him.