It’s not often that an IAS officer stands up against his political masters, even when that be none other than the chief minister. However, Ashok Khemka, a 1991-batch Haryana cadre officer, is known to do just that. This might explain his 40 transfers in 20 years.
While his public image is of a ‘whistle-blower’, an ‘upright honest officer’ and a ‘crusader’; his bureaucrat colleagues would describe him as a ‘maverick’; some even talk of his love of ‘grandstanding’ and propensity to be a ‘crusader within the system’.
Khemka was transferred within hours after ordering a probe into land dealings involving Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra. Yesterday, the last day of his posting as director-general, consolidation of land holdings, he’d cancelled mutation of a 3.531-acre plot in Manesar-Shikohpur that Vadra had sold to property giant DLF for Rs 58 crore.
Now, while having joined his new posting in the Haryana Seeds Development Corporation, he has questioned Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on the ‘arbitrary transfer order’ and gone public with it.
An IAS colleague who has known Khemka for three decades told Business Standard: “Khemka lives in a utopian world and believes in being a crusader, fighting the system from within. Not only the government; he has even taken his own batchmates to court over trivial issues. He also has a penchant for grandstanding, calling in the media to ensure coverage.” Like the time Khemka was given a ‘punishment posting’ and was not entitled to get a vehicle; he cycled to work and ensured the press covered it.
When Om Prakash Chautala was the chief minister of Haryana and Khemka was posted as the director of secondary education, the former had asked him to transfer some teachers. Khemka refused to follow the direct order. When Chautala asked why, Khemka replied it was the middle of the academic session and the transfers could affect the students, so he would not.
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Last month, Khemka had on his own accord filed an affidavit against the stand taken by the government in a case pertaining to quashing the transfer of 104 acres of village common land to some realtors and private parties. Initially, the Punjab and Haryana high court had moved contempt charges against him. It subsequently dropped these, quashed the land transfer and reinstated the land with the village panchayat. When Khemka was asked what had prompted him to do this, he had reportedly said, “I was not able to reconcile myself to such gross abuse of authority.”
About six months earlier, Khemka cancelled the current system of pension disbursement by the state government and announced there would be direct bank transfer. Typically, this process is flawless only after substantial back-end work is done with the banks. This was not done and as a result, pension payments got delayed and also went to the wrong accounts. Chief Minister Hooda was angry, directed reversion to the old system and shifted Khemka out. One of Khemka's colleagues, while saying he was a brilliant officer, said, ‘We all know that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.'
The longest tenure he has ever had in his 21-year administrative career in any one posting has been 18 months in the social empowerment department.