Rajendra Kumar
Written by Sourav Roy Barman
Rajendra Kumar, the former principal secretary of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Wednesday told The Indian Express that bureaucracy should not become a “tool” in the hands of any organisation, and that public servants should resort to agitations only if it concerns matters of public good.
Kumar, who has been chargesheeted in a corruption case by the CBI, was arrested in July 2016 and later released on bail. His residence and office in the Delhi Secretariat were also raided, triggering a political firestorm in the capital and prompting Kejriwal to lash out at the Prime Minister. Kumar, whose application for voluntary retirement was rejected by the Centre, said civil servants, including chief secretaries, are operating in an atmosphere of “great fear”. Kumar was suspended following his arrest.
“IAS association is a forum of people who have one of the highest set of responsibilities in our democracy and they have the consequent authority to fulfil their duties. Therefore they need to ensure that the association does not become a tool in the hands of any other organisation,” Kumar said, when asked about the march led by Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash against the alleged assault on him by two AAP MLAs at CM’s home on February 19. “Public service should be the paramount concern both for the civil service and public representatives. It should be the only guiding factor for them. Every agitation by them must serve some public cause,” he said.
Asked about the largely muted reaction of the bureaucratic fraternity when he faced raids and was arrested, Kumar, a 1989-batch IAS officer, said he had requested his colleagues not to issue any statement as it would not have served any public cause. “But at the same time, I am not sure whether it was my advice that held them back…. there is an atmosphere of great fear, even at the highest levels of civil service,” he said.
Elaborating the current status of the case against him, Kumar said even after a most intensive inquiry, the agency could not unearth anything beyond a charge of “data entry” relating to a thesis against him. He alleged, “They have beaten up at least 100 people to get adverse statements against me. And the amount of resources, which they have put in, in an attempt to implicate me is more than the combined effort in the 2G scam or the coal scam. They have said we are keeping the investigation open with respect to the trail of money after having failed to find anything.”
Asked if he would accept an offer to contest as an AAP candidate if there are bypolls in the capital, Kumar said, “I am not associated with AAP or any other party per se. But I know a lot of people in AAP, and other parties, and have good relations with them. For that matter, I have good relations with people in Mizoram as well, where I served 25 years back. All good people should join politics if they care about the nation.”
Kumar, who held several key positions in the previous Sheila Dikshit government, was charged by the CBI of corruption and criminal conspiracy.
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