The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Thursday, January 23, 2003, Chandigarh, India

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Action sought against Punjab IAS officer
Tribune News Service

In view of the mounting pressure from within the ruling party and further revelations made in the media, the Punjab Government is contemplating to initiate disciplinary action against the senior IAS officer involved in the Panchkula episode, sources revealed today.

What action was being planned against him was kept a closely guarded secret. The action was expected in a day or two, the sources said, maintaining that delay, if any, was because of the absence of the Chief Minister from the state headquarters.

Chandigarh, January 22
The Panchkula episode has started snowballing into a major political issue. Whereas a number of political parties today demanded the “immediate removal of erring senior IAS officer Mukul Joshi from the service”, others have sought a high-level inquiry and exemplary action against him without further delay.

In fact, the incident has created a stir in the ruling Congress as well. Informed sources said that senior Congress leaders from Punjab today virtually flooded the office of Mrs Sonia Gandhi in Delhi with photo-copies of newspaper clippings on the Panchkula incident. E-mails had also been sent to her in this connection.

Firing the first salvo, the leader of the CPI in Punjab, Dr Joginder Dayal, said “Mukul Joshi should be immediately sacked. He should be divested of all official responsibilities”. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh should contact his Haryana counterpart with a request to open a full-fledged inquiry against the IAS officer. He said action against the IAS officer was warranted to send a message across the state that law was same for the mighty and it was not being selectively used to settle political and other scores.

Mr Birdevinder Singh, Congress MLA from Kharar, said disciplinary action should be taken against the officer. The “objectionable activities of the officer had caused great harm to the image of the ruling party in the state and he should be shown the door immediately. It was a question of moral values and ethics and to uphold the dignity and honour of public offices in the state.” The incident was a sad reflection on the functioning of the administrative machinery, he added. “Our party has promised to give transparent, efficient and clean governance.” He said if action was not taken against the officer at the state government level, senior leaders of the party would approach the AICC to intervene. The action of the officer was inappropriate and objectionable and he should not be allowed to get away with it. Interestingly, the officer was holding two very important departments and several senior IAS and PCS officers have been working under his direct command. What message had he sent to his junior colleagues? Mr Birdevinder asked.

The strongest reaction has come from former Punjab Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition Parkash Singh Badal. He has asked Captain Amarinder Singh to explain what were his personal compulsions in issuing a clean chit to those involved in the sensational happenings at Panchkula even after he had been confronted with compelling media evidence and other supporting facts. “The Chief Minister must own moral responsibility for the increasing number of sleaze scandals hitting his government and take the obvious course open to any self-respecting Head of Government. With what face will he and his closest aides enter the Punjab Civil Secretariat after this latest expose involving Amarinder’s handpicked man in the administration?”

“The incident has shocked everyone except Captain Amarinder Singh. It is not something a head of government should speak lightly about as the Chief Minister has done. These incidents and the attitude of the Chief Minister cast a serious shadow on the morality of our children. The incident and more particularly the Chief Minister’s attitude is bound to shock the national conscience. The issue involves our culture and morality and their relevance for our future generations,” Mr Badal said.

Mr Badal was reacting to media reports about a senior Punjab officer, considered a key player in the ruling dispensation, being nabbed, along with the wife of one of his seniormost colleagues, by the Panchkula police in the unearthly haze of circumstances on the intervening night of January 20-21.

The Chief Minister had flatly denied the occurrence of any such incident and refused even to order a simple probe to establish the veracity of these reports. Instead, he had chosen, he claimed, to believe his morning briefings according to which nothing at all had happened. “ If those briefing the Chief Minister had indeed kept him in the dark about the nightly goings-on, does he not know what he should have done with such aides, advisers and bureaucrats? What were the Chief Minister’s great compulsions in denying the incident and refusing even to have these reports inquired into?” Mr. Badal asked.

About the social and political implications of the scandal, Mr Badal said the issues involved were for far too serious to be left in irresponsible hands. “ I do not know about the Congress attitude, but the people of Punjab are never going to forgive this shocking degradation of moral standards in public life.”

The Akali leader also said that the total absence of good governance and the utter neglect of development in the state by the present government could only be explained by its obsessions with activities unrelated to public welfare.

In a lighter vein, Mr Badal also wondered why the Chief Minister had not seen a Badal hand in the nocturnal drama so far.