Caucus of IAS officers worked to ensure third term for Pinarayi: B Ashok IAS

A day after he was placed under suspension, IAS officer B Ashok has hit back at Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for fostering an administrative culture that valued subservience over merit. The slavish behaviour among civil servants was so intense that Ashok alleged that a “caucus” of serving IAS officers led by a retired IAS officer had worked for nearly six months to ensure a third term for the LDF Government. 

Ashok said that it was through the posting of “long retired” IAS officer K M Abraham as the 'chief principal secretary' of the Chief Minister that civil servants in Kerala were sought to be intimidated and silenced. “It is on his whim and initiative that the movement of IAS officers and even the posting of the chief secretary are decided,” Ashok told reporters on Thursday.

He said Abraham's appointment was against the IAS Service Rules. It is a serving IAS officer who should be appointed as the principal secretary to the CM. This is a crucial post as it is this officer, along with the chief secretary, who coordinates the working of the other departments with the Chief Minister's office. 

During the first Pinarayi Ministry, serving IAS officer M Sivasankar held the post. “Though he was suspended, Sivasankar was good at coordination. He could set aside personal interests and coordinate all departments in the best way possible,” Ashok said.

After Sivasankar's suspension in the gold smuggling scandal, KIIFB CEO and retired civil servant K M Abraham was given an additional charge as ‘chief principal secretary’. There is no such cadre post, it was invented for Abraham.

“By 2023, he was also given cabinet rank. So an additional layer was created in the bureaucracy. He (Abraham) considered even the Chief Secretary as his subordinate and issued instructions to him, virtually assuming the role of the chief secretary. The result was a duality of control,” Ashok said.

From this point, Ashok said that the coordination of the departments with the Chief Minister's Office was disrupted. He said that the IAS Association began litigations against the LDF government after this.

“After he was given cabinet rank, K M Abraham is acting like the second in command in the government. Many a time, he had bypassed the Finance Department and given instructions to officers and even ministers," Ashok said. 

He said that it was the control over KIIFB that made Abraham powerful. "The KIIFB's fund utilisation was far greater than that of any of the government departments. As KIIFB grew into a bigger entity than even the government, Abraham transformed into an extra-Constitutional power centre,” Ashok said. 

The suspended officer, who is also the president of the Kerala IAS Association, said that the Association would give in writing to the new government to do away with the “poor precedent” of appointing “long retired” officers in critical posts.

“There are innumerable irregularities that require serious investigation in entities led by these retired officers,” Ashok said, without offering details.

In the last six months, he said a caucus of serving officers under the leadership of KIIFB is trying to ensure a third term for the Pinarayi government. “Never have I seen civil servants actively engaged in the political process of the ruling party. They are using public funds, the money borrowed by KIIFB, for massive publicity campaigns for the ruling party,” he said, and added: “Speaking out against this is the reason for the action against me. It is my understanding that the KIIFB has no legal right to conduct publicity campaigns for the government. They can use the funds only for the creation of infrastructure and ancillary uses.”

He alleged that the KIIFB has commissioned a Mumbai-based agency to conduct a costly publicity campaign of ₹130 crore. 

Ashok said that the caucus under Abraham was trying to silence any officer who asks questions. As example, he referred to the government's decision to appoint KIIFCON as consultants for the Wayanad Rehabilitation Project. “At a meeting, I raised two questions. One: Shouldn't we float a tender rather than depend on a single agency? Two: Does KIIFCON have any prior experience in assessing the quality of structures? The chief secretary ended the meeting right there and in the next week I was shunted out as the Local Administration Commission,” Ashok said.

He further said that the latest suspension was a vindictive action by the Chief Minister. “No one below the rank of the CM can take action against an officer in the principal secretary's grade,” he said.

Since 2023, Ashok said that the IAS Association and he were fighting against the CM. “In all the five matters that the advocate general appeared for the CM, it was the IAS Association that won. Since I was the petitioner, there would naturally be resentment against me,” he said and added: “Compared with the damage these cases have inflicted on the CM, this suspension order is nothing.”

On March 26 this year, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) came down harshly on the state government's arbitrary and frequent transfers of IAS officers and invalidated the multiple transfer orders served on Ashok, who was then the Agriculture principal secretary and Agriculture Production Commissioner.