Chennai: The all-powerful Tamil Nadu IAS Officers Association appears to have abandoned chief secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao. The association and its functionaries chose to be silent on the I-T raids on the top babu whereas they had been vociferous in criticizing the suspension of Rao’s predecessor K. Gnanadesikan in June this year.
“We have decided to wait and watch, rather than rush with any statements in support of the chief secretary. We hear that the raids are happening only based on some specific information”, said a senior functionary of the IAS association.
“Besides, the many young IAS officers who had rushed to us urging for statement in support of Gnanadesikan—they had feared that unless we raise our voice against that suspension, others too would be rendered vulnerable to political vendetta—are now telling us we must not intervene in the case of the present CS”, he added.
“Hang our heads in shame to see the second floor of Fort St George being raided by IT officials and this is a terrible disgrace to our fraternity,” screamed an SMS from an officer to his senior advising him not to support errant officials. This mood seems prevalent among several IAS officers, particularly the younger lot, when DC interacted with them on Wednesday.
Another informed member, who is also an office bearer with the IAS body, pointed out that the association’s objective “is only to look after the welfare of serving officers and not to tread into unknown terrain”.
Further, said another officer, the association had received information that the I-T department and the central intelligence agencies had zeroed in on the chief secretary only after collecting evidence pointing to corruption and money laundering.
When asked why the association issued a recent statement supporting two senior officers (former chief secretary K Gnanadesikan and Commissioner of Geology and Mining Atul Anand) when they were placed under suspension, a senior office bearer shot back saying that the issue was different now. “In that case, we found that the officers were suspended due to political interference. But now it seems to be a case of laundering unaccounted money following demonitisation.
