The fight among Kerala bureaucrats is now coming out in the open, thanks to the suspended IAS officer, Prasanth N (IAS:2007:KL), for his alleged vilification campaign against senior and colleagues. After being suspended for making derogatory remarks about his senior, Additional Chief Secretary A Jayathilak (IAS:1991:KL) on social media, he has now taken to Facebook to link A Jayathilak to a “media leak” regarding the “disappearance” of key files.
Not only this, Prasanth reportedly posted a screenshot of a timestamped government PDF file regarding the bureaucratic wrangle on his FB account. The media published a screenshot of the file. Prasanth has alleged that the file had Jayathilak’s digital imprint and alleged that the digital trail showed that Jayathilak’s office had leaked the file directly to the newspaper.
The trouble started when Prasanth headed Unnathi as director of the SC/ST Development department. The media report that Dr. Jayathilak had understandably written to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, pointing out the alleged anomaly, ignited the fight between the two. It is also alleged that Prasanth failed to hand over the relevant files to his successor K. Gopalakrishnan.
Gopalakrishnan is also serving suspension on the charge of attempting to cause communal polarisation in society by creating WhatsApp groups with communal overtone.
Prasanth has alleged that Jayathilak and Gopalakrishnan had tasked themselves to “finish me” after the government transferred him to the Agriculture department.
Though Jayathilak has so far preferred to be tight-lipped, it is not clear as yet if Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan (IAS:1990:KL) had taken cognisance of Mr. Prasanth’s latest social media post. Prasanth has already been issued charge memo for undermining the administrative machiner and, tarnishing the government’s reputation.
Muraleedharan has already reprimanded Prasanth for making derogatory comments and indirect statements about Jayathilak and Gopalakrishnan.
