For Express-ing his views, Centre wants state to act against IPS officer

The DoPT claims that Kumar’s articles “ridiculed and criticized the policies of the government” and adds, in a bizarre twist, that he “tried to foster discontentment and dissatisfaction amongst the Civil Services and the public in general.” This, the letter said, violates Rule 7 of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules.

Rule 7 bars officials from writing/stating to the media anything that “has the effect Kumar wrote in the the context of the larger debate on the Pay Panel recommendations and took a critical look at the All-India services and not the IAS alone.

In his piece, By the IAS, for the IAS, published on April 23 in The Indian Express, he raises questions about “the role of the IAS as disinterested custodian of the Indian state,” Kumar wrote: “The IAS and the IPS, as well as the other services, have fallen well short of (the public’s) expectations”.

In other article in question, The other caste system, on March 27 in The Indian Express, Kumar writes that “…if you look at the collective response of the IAS and the IPS to the serious challenges faced by the Indian state in the last four decades, it is clear that the All India Services are now a pitiful caricature of the ideals that inspired Nehru and Patel to retain them in the first place”. (Both these articles are available on indianexpress.com)

The DoPT, however, has focussed on the mention of the IAS in his articles. It has alleged that Kumar implied that “all IAS officers are only engaged in delivering this loot to our politicians and take their own cut and bounty in cash or in kind.” When contacted, Kumar who is SP (Crime and Law & Order), said he was not aware of the DoPT letter. “I have not received any formal notice but I have learnt that a letter has been sent by DOPT to the Govt of Uttarakhand accusing me of violation of conduct rules and asking them to take action against me”, he said.

When told about the allegations that his writing violated conduct rules, Kumar said: “As an IPS officer, I feel I would be remiss in my duties as a public servant if I refrained from a public debate about the crisis that faces the policing profession. If criticizing the IAS and the IPS for falling short of expectations of the people of India is a violation of Victorian norms of Civil Service conduct then I am as guilty as Upamanyu Chatterjee, a serving IAS officer, who couched that criticism in fiction.”

The DoPT’s letter has stirred up a storm amongst the IPS community. The Uttarakhand chapter of the IPS association passed a resolution condemning the DoPT’s move and asked the Central IPS Association to take up the issue with the Ministry of Home Affairs and DoPT. They have also urged the state government to “drop the issue.”

“We had a meeting on this issue and we feel that though Abhinav Kumar has written in his own style and idiom, he has reflected something practically everyone in government services feels about the Pay Panel recommendations. It in not an individual view alone but a collective feeling and one widely reported in the media. He should therefore not be singled out. We feel that this action is because of a bias against one particular individual and service and it is like sending us all a message to shut up,” said A B Lal, Director (Prosecution), Uttarakhand police and chairperson of the Uttarakhand chapter of the IPS association.