Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath has seemingly thought of yet another ingenious way to harass the government officials in the state. He wrote a letter, asking the Congress chiefs and Lok Sabha candidates to compile a list of employees and officers who have not been impartial in the elections. It is no secret that Kamal Nath has been prejudiced against the government officials ever since he came to power, and even before that, when he was campaigning for the assembly elections. Now, this latest move has reinforced his stand against them.
In his letter, Kamal Nath has claimed that the Election Commission (EC) is committed to holding free and fair polls. In furtherance to this, he has asked for a list of those employees and officers who have not been impartial in the elections. Moreover, Nath has asked the designations of the employees and officers to be included in the list, and evidence of partisanship shown by them to the State Congress Committee. The letter does not mention what Nath intends to do with this information. The evidence of partisanship implies that Kamal Nath is essentially looking to segregate those officials which have been partial towards the Congress from those who haven’t. Here, partisanship is a subjective term, as the people, who stayed impartial and didn’t support Congress in the elections, may also fall in this category.
Reacting to the letter, BJP vice president Prabhat Jha said that the letter aims to threaten employees and demanded that Kamal Nath should resign from the CM’s post. “Who are Congress leaders to decide who has been fair or impartial?” he asked, adding that the Congress office is not the EC’s office.
This move is motivated by Kamal Nath’s growing insecurity over the party’s control in the state. Since Congress has come to power after 15 years in the state, Nath worries that the government may still have officials who are loyal to BJP; thus, sabotaging Congress’ chances of securing seats in the Lok Sabha elections.
The government employees have borne the brunt of this insecurity since a long time. Currently, a large number of employees of the power distribution companies are facing action after top Congress leaders accused them of deliberately shutting off power supply and then sending messages on social media that power cuts have begun ever since the Congress came to power.
Kamal Nath had made his intentions against the government officials clear since before he came to power. During his election campaigning, he had practically threatened the government officials in the state. Kamal Nath had said, “Such government servants do not sport the badge of the party but “secretly keep it in their pockets.” He had also breathed fire against police officials as he cautioned them saying, “Yaad rakhna, 11 ke baad 12 bhee aata hai” (all officials should remember that there will be 12th after 11th).” Here he was referring to the vote-counting day that fell on 11th of December, 2018 when results for 230 assembly seats were declared. Kamal Nath had essentially warned the employees to be ready to face the ‘consequences’ and his ‘wrath’ when his party forms the government in the state.
The MP CM seems to have kept his word this time around. Exactly as he had warned, as soon as his party came to power, he began his vendetta against the government officials. One of the first things he did was transferring 42 IAS officers in the state. Kamal Nath, rather than spending time pursuing development goals, preferred to prioritize these transfers. Congress wants complete loyalty, of bureaucratic officers, to their party, surviving only by creating a favorable and nefariously loyal ecosystem. Transferring of officials just because they held an important position in the previous ruling dispensation is wrong on many levels.
The officers have been suffering under Kamal Nath’s oppressive regime for quite some time now, where the concern is loyalty to the Congress government instead of neutrality. Now, Kamal Nath seeks to indirectly threaten the government employees, forcing them to be biased towards the Congress during the elections, or risk losing their positions.