The suspended Kerala IAS officer, N Prasanth, seems to be stepping into a zone of protracted battle due to his unusual habit of using social media to pick up targets and intensify confrontation. His current target is Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan. After pointing various accusations at several bureaucrats, his latest salvo against the Chief Secretary comes in form of a demand of immediate action on his long-pending promotion.
A 2007-batch officer, Prasanth again chose Facebook to share his grievance after detailing his meeting with Muraleedharan in a formal hearing. Prasanth’s belligerence invited suspension for him, yet he remained unstoppable and continued to level serious allegations against senior bureaucrats, including Additional Chief Secretary A Jayathilak (1991-batch), IAS officer K Gopalakrishnan (2013-batch), and later turned his guns at Muraleedharan herself. He went to the extent of slapping legal notices on them, accusing them of fabricating charges and conspiring against him.
In his latest post, he claims that his promotion has been hanging fire since 2022, and cites the rule saying promotion issues should be settled in a matter of six months. Now he wants his due promotion now and claims his life is at stake. He even warns against any action on his social media posts by saying, “to initiate action against the FB post I made is foolhardy and against the All India Service rules and to commence another probe should not be done.”
Earlier, he called for criminal proceedings against Jayathilak, Gopalakrishnan, and a media group, accusing them of conspiracy and the fabrication of documents. He then threatens the government by saying that the rule of law is also applicable to the Government and it should not behave in a manner that those aggrieved can resort to legal redress. This does not augur well for governance.
Interestingly, he wants all tricky issues he has been raising to be resolved first before his his suspension is revoked. He wants the government not to show any hurry to revoke his suspension. He is clear about his priorities, issues raised by him need to be redressed first.
Prasanth seems to be in for a protracted battle ahead as current Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan is retiring on April 30, and his original betenoire, Jayathilak, is likely to succeed her as Chief Secretary. Thus, the ongoing dispute is also unlikely to end soon.
(By-Dinesh Kumar)
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