When Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati put her foot on a brick of a drain and it upturned during a surprise inspection of an Ambedkar village a few days back, the Lakhimpur-Kheri District Magistrate Ashok Kumar Singh shook with fear and anger. ‘‘Tu to gaya (You are gone),’’ pronounced Mayawati, and Singh was suspended on the spot. While she continues with her spot suspensions and transfer style, eyebrows are being raised in political corridors about how officials belonging to upper castes are being targetted and those of the lower castes are being let off easily or are getting less harsh punishment. Today, the Chief Minister suspended Kannauj District Magistrate D.C.D. Bhargava, SP Mukesh Babu Shukla, the Chief Development Officer, District Panchayat Raj Officer and an SHO of Kotwali Police Station for derelication of duty, official sources said. On her part, the CM is gaining popularity as the spot suspensions of officers from the upper castes and comparatively lesser punishment for their lower caste counterparts have only fortified her Dalit agenda among her voters. But, her style of functioning has given the BJP sleepless nights. ‘‘The officers in our regions ask our castes before deciding on completing the job taken by us to them,’’ claimed BJP workers from western and central UP regions during the party’s recent exercise to gather the general feeling in different districts. ‘‘The CM is playing the caste card to send the message that she alone cares for Dalits. This is objectionable and will set a wrong precedent. The BJP has no courage to confront her on this issue,’’ alleged the state Congress chief Jagdambika Pal today. The Opposition has reasons to justify its allegations. The DMs who have so far been suspended include V.K. Varshanay (Sonebhadra), R.K. Pandey (Sant Kabir Nagar), S.P.S. Solanki (Bijnore), R.K. Singh (Lakhimpur) and D.C.D. Bhargava (Kannauj). All of them belong to the upper castes — the BJP’s vote bank. Those transferred during spot assessment of development jobs include Hari Om (Auriya), Anil Kumar Sagar (Rae Bareli) and Dharam Singh (Mahoba). The Chief Development Officers (CDOs) who have been placed under suspension for ‘‘laxity in development jobs’’ in their respective region include V.P. Singh (Sehjanva), A.K. Singh and R.B. Singh of Sant Kabir Nagar and Heera Mani Mishra (Sonebhadra). ‘‘The relaxation in punishment is restricted to officials of particular castes. Kanpur Commissioner Mohammed Halim Khan was suspended for attending a political function while another officer (DM, Auriyya) was transferred for a similar charge,’’ a senior IAS officer revealed. So far, nearly two dozen IAS and IPS officers — a majority of them from upper castes — have found themselves on the receiving end. And the BJP’s logic to defend her is: ‘‘The fact is that the number of officials belonging to upper castes is higher than those representing lower castes. It is natural that they will get more punishment,’’ claimed the party’s state media-in-charge Vijay Pathak. The IPS Association has raised an objection about the manner in which the officials are being treated by the CM, and passed a resolution at a special executive committee meeting to condemn the spot suspensions and transfers. While a copy of the same was sent to the CM, the IAS Association has not mustered up the courage to lodge a formal protest. ‘‘What’s the use ? We lodged a protest during our annual general body meeting in December last and a delegation had gone to meet the CM to convey our hurt feelings due to her style of functioning. Has anything changed? Nothing will change till our own brothers themselves do not stop being identified with certain political groups,’’ said a senior IAS official.
