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Only the other day, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) official spokespersons and its zillion twitter spokespersons were busy lamenting the fate of an honest officer under the Congress government in Karnataka. They would settle for nothing less than a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe.
Before ink has dried on the handing over and taking over orders of the DK Ravi death investigation by the central agency, there is another instance of another honest officer being treated shabbily.
Before ink has dried on the handing over and taking over orders of the DK Ravi death investigation by the central agency, there is another instance of another honest officer being treated shabbily.
Who is the culprit this time? It is the BJP government in Haryana. Ashok Khemka, the senior IAS officer who famously ordered probe into deals of realty entrepreneur Robert Vadra, was transferred from his post as Transport Commissioner. He spent a little over four months in his latest posting before getting his transfer number 46. While the ‘Sickulars’ on Twitter have pounced on the opportunity, the ‘Bhakts’ are trying various face saving jargons such as calling it a social communication failure, bad public relations.
But, Khemka himself did not allow much room for spin doctors. “Tried hard to address corruption and bring reforms in Transport despite severe limitations and entrenched interests. Moment is truly painful,” @AshokKhemka_IAS, his much-followed twitter handle said late Wednesday night.
He followed it up with a tweet denying suggestions from Haryana government sources that the latest one was a result of request from Khemka. When someone suggested that Khemka’s new destination to the office of the Director General in the Archaelogical department was a ‘promotion’ Khemka said, “The rank of Director General or Secretary is given to 16 year senior IAS. I am 24 year senior.”
He remained in his old position as transport commissioner for all of 128 days. Should this happen to people who live by the prime minister’s slogan “Naa Khaoonga, Naa Khaane Dhoonga.”? Unless there is intervention from the top level, the reality for honest people would be get transferred or get bumped off. Worse, get transferred and then get bumped off too. It is not necessary that someone has to get killed or be subjected to other bodily harms before the outrage industry wakes up.
We need to do a recheck of the red flags on our tolerance meters. Forty-six is too high. Even one unjustified transfer should not be tolerated. Let us begin with Khemka’s 46th. Let us ask who was feeling uncomfortable by the presence of an honest officer in the transport commissioner’s office. Let us ask which vested interest got this done. Let us ask who benefitted from the move. Let us ask for a CBI inquiry.
