Suspended IAS officer B Ashok slams Kerala govt over ‘bureaucratic caucus’
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A day after his suspension for criticising the LDF government, senior IAS officer Dr B Ashok launched a fierce attack on the dispensation, alleging public funds were misused for publicity and a bureaucratic “caucus” backed a third term.
The 1998-batch officer, vice-chancellor of Kerala Agricultural University and principal secretary in the Sainik Welfare Department, has clashed repeatedly with the CPI(M)-led regime ahead of polls. Unfazed, he told media: “This is the suspension order of a government which was dismissed by the people on April 9. The order will remain on the table. I am not going to challenge the suspension in the central administrative tribunal.”
Targeting chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s principal chief secretary Dr K M Abraham (KIIFB CEO), Ashok claimed: “Kerala IAS used to work in a most impartial way. But I’m sorry to say that a caucus of bureaucrats under the leadership of the CEO of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (Abraham) has been operating for the last six months to ensure a third regime of the present government.” He accused the group of flouting All India Civil Services rules, with prior government actions against him failing in court.
Ashok faces an inquiry for breaching service rules by speaking to media without sanction, amid past transfer battles quashed by the Central Administrative Tribunal.