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Communist bullying drives IAS officials out of Kerala

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Several Indian Administrative Service officers working in Kerala are moving out of the state, feeling disenchanted with the Communist-led government.

Three senior IAS officers shifted out recently. Several others have opted for either central service or returning to their respective state cadres.

What provided momentum to this trend was the state cabinet decision to post Kerala State Electricity Board chairman Dr V Rajagopalan as transport secretary, a rather insignificant job. Dr Rajagopalan, involved in executing an ambitious project to make Kerala self-sufficient in power by 2000, is known as an efficient and upright officer. While the government claimed he had belied its confidence in him by passing out confidential information about the Board's functioning to the Opposition, highly placed sources said the position he had taken on certain key issues were not what some of the Communist Party of India-Marxist bosses, including V S Achutanandan, the LDF convener, wanted.

"Political interference in bureaucracy has been growing ever since Achutanandan took over the key post," sources said.

Dr A D Damodaran, E M S Namboodiripad's son-in-law, recently resigned as chairman of the State Committee for Science and Technology after the government made a controversial appointment to the director's post at the Centre for Earth Sciences Studies, overlooking merit.

To add insult to injury, the government has been appointing non-IAS officers in key positions held earlier by IAS men. The post of the KSEB chairman, for instance, was given to board technical member Sidhartha Menon, against whom charges of irregularities have been levelled by several ruling front partners themselves.

The IAS lobby is also irked by the appointment of a former accountant general, James Joseph, as the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation managing director. Joseph, RSP leader Baby John's son-in-law, became dear to the CPI-M after he made certain adverse remarks against former chief minister K Karunakaran in the controversial palmolein deal. He replaced Amitabh Kant, who was suspended in connection with a land deal.

Another post which went to the non-IAS is that of the Planning Board secretary. It ended with P R Kurup, who was heading the economic division of the Planning Board. He has also been given an additional charge: secretary, science and technology department. The Planning Board secretary's post is significant in the light of the current campaign against decentralising planning process.

In the light of these developments, Chief Secretary C P Nair, due for retirement on April 30, is said to be planning to proceed on leave.

The IAS Officers Association, which was lying low since the unsavoury controversy over the 1996 Palakkad hostage drama, too, is thinking of intervening in the matter. Officials say, the alienation of IAS men started after the hostage drama. The IAS lobby feels the government had not sufficiently protected the collector concerned, Dr W R Reddy, who was held hostage for nearly eight hours in October 1996. The Association had then openly voiced its protest against this. The CPI-M had at one stage even thought of removing the collector, but the Communist Party of India, a ruling front ally, saved the situation.

Relations between the government and the bureaucracy has never been smooth when the Communists were in power. This, political observers say, is mainly because they believe that the majority of IAS officers are pro-Congress and are always in league with the Opposition to discredit the government. The feeling had developed during the liberation struggle which brought down the first Communist ministry headed by Namboodiripad -- the Communists thought the bureaucracy was with the agitators.

For its part, the bureaucracy has been greatly demoralised by a series of vigilance cases initiated against retired and serving officers. More than 700 officials have been suspended since the Communist-led government assumed office in May 1996. This has scared quite a few senior officers into masterly inaction on controversial issues -- taking a decision, any decision, they fear, could bring vigilance cases against them in future.

Some of the ruling front allies, meanwhile, are concerned over the worsening relation between the government and the bureaucracy. Parties like the CPI and Revolutionary Socialist Party have advised the CPI-M to be more sympathetic to bureaucrats as their co-operation is vital for successful governance.

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