The raids on senior IAS official and sacked Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu Rama Mohan Rao’s home and office have opened up various new angles.
The top official, who has had three decades of administrative experience behind him, now says he is being targeted and that nothing incriminating could be unearthed from the raids on his premises. Significantly, he also alleges that there was a violation of the norms relating to Centre-State relations because, interestingly, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was engaged for the raids.
This was done without seeking permission from the state government which is mandatory. He also says there is a threat to his life, though he has stopped short of explaining what kind of a danger he perceives.
It is true that Tamil Nadu is in a state of flux both at the political and administrative levels after the demise of Ms. Jayaram Jayalalithaa. The ruling AIADMK party is caught in a leadership struggle and its contours are not clear yet.
Clarity would emerge only after a new leader is anointed in place of Jayalalithaa who was at the head of the party as also the state administration as chief minister. The days before and after her demise saw the BJP seeking to pull the strings from behind; and this, in a state where this North Indian party so far had no support base.
The saffron outfit is probably taking advantage of its power in Delhi to push its agenda in the South. Tamil Nadu being in a rudderless state, this is seen as proper time for the BJP to fish in troubled waters.
The appointment of a new chief minister in the form of O Panneerselvam within hours of Jayalalithaa’s demise is suspected to have been facilitated by the BJP, which obviously played a role through the Governor.
It is also likely that there was a political intent in the raids on the chief secretary’s home and office, and this view is strengthened by the fact that Panneerselvam was in Delhi a day before the raids and that he had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Damodardass Modi.
Rama Mohan Rao is a seasoned administrator. While some allegations of corruption against him have been flying around in recent weeks, there had been no such charges against him in the past.
This is not to give him a clean chit by claiming that he is not corrupt. The raids, as the media is told, have not helped in extricating anything incriminating against him, and aspects like the seizure of a lakh of rupees from his home is a non-issue.
An individual is innocent unless proven guilty. Since no incriminating evidence has been cited against him so far, even his removal from the office of chief secretary might be called into question in a court of law. Rao insists that he is still the chief secretary, and the government website says he is “in wait” — possibly for a new posting.
Centre-state relations are a sensitive matter. A raid on the office of the chief secretary at the state secretariat — Fort St George — by central agencies with the help of gun-wielding CRPF personnel is a serious matter.
It called into question the authority of the Union government which displayed utter disregard of the state government. No permission seemed to have been taken from the state governor or the state chief minister.
These are matters that could now reach courts, and Rama Mohan Rao seems confident he has many avenues to fight and prove his innocence or whatever. The raids have, no doubt, tarnished his image as mostly happens.
Legal recourse may be open to him to fight things out but that is inevitably a losing battle simply because of the time consumed. Therein lies the weakness of our system. The minimum that a senior official who ran the administration of a state for many years expects is to get a fair deal for himself.
Ensuring as much is now next to impossible as the Courts too have lately become subservient to imbecile political heavyweights.
