Lucknow, February 2
Confronting Governor T.V. Rajeswar, Chief Minister Mayawati today refused to reconsider her government’s decision to suspend four senior officials for their contribution in the production of a book reportedly praising the Nehru-Gandhi family’s role in the development of Amethi.

In her three-page retort to the Governor’s letter sent yesterday asking her government to revoke the disciplinary action against the officials, she said, “Instead of writing a letter to me on the basis of newspaper reports it would have been better if you would have spoken to me personally to clarify your doubts”.

Defending her decision, Mayawati claims in her letter that the reason for the suspensions was to ensure an impartial bureaucracy. “The revised edition praises my government and even me. This is also not correct.”

Underlining her respect for Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, she reiterates that the action was taken just to ensure the bureaucracy’s impartiality.

Releasing copies of her letter to the Governor at a press conference, Mayawati defended the suspension of Faizabad Commissioner Venkateshwar Lu, Sultanpur District Magistrate Sanjay Kumar and two others, saying they had violated service rules by not merely writing forewords by contributing in the compilation and publication of the book ‘Sultanpur-kal aur Aaj’.

Responding to the Governor’s suggestion of taking action against the author instead of those who wrote forewords, Mayawati reminded him that he was a Central government employee and therefore only the government in Delhi could take such an action.

The suspension has let to great resentment among the IAS officers of the state and they plan to take it up at the appropriate forum, sources said.