Santosh Verma, a senior IAS officer, received a strongly worded show-cause notice from the Madhya Pradesh government for his contentious public remarks criticizing the continuation of caste-based reservations, calling them “detrimental to social harmony” and a flagrant violation of civil service conduct regulations.
The General Administration Department (GAD) sent out a notice late on Tuesday night directing the officer, who is currently assigned to the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department as Deputy Secretary, to provide a written explanation within seven days. Failure to do so will result in unilateral departmental action without further notice.
When Verma allegedly said that reservations had “served their original purpose” and were now being “exploited as a permanent political tool” during a speech at a literary event in Bhopal last Sunday, November 22, the fury broke out.
His contentious Hindi (loosely translated) statement, “Reservation benefits should be limited to only one member per family, unless a Brahmin is willing to give his daughter in marriage to my son or establish a relationship with him,” was published in the notice.
The speech’s video quickly went viral on social media, sparking an unanticipated flood of protests from Brahmin groups who accused the officer of “insulting constitutional guarantees” as well as immediate criticism from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and OBC organizations.
By Monday morning, protesters from a variety of social groups had assembled outside the state headquarters, Vallabh Bhawan, burning effigies and calling for Verma’s immediate suspension as well as a formal complaint under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Placards that read “Protect Babasaheb’s legacy” and “Bureaucrats cannot rewrite the Constitution” dominated the demonstrations.
The Madhya Pradesh government suspended senior IAS officer Santosh Verma (batch 2011) with immediate effect on Wednesday in a significant disciplinary move due to his very contentious comments on caste-based reservation made during the public event.
Verma’s statement, “One person in a family should get reservation, unless a Brahmin donates his daughter to my son or the daughter establish a relation with him,” appears to violate several provisions of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968 and the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969, according to the showcause notice signed by Deputy Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sharma and issued late on Wednesday night by the General Administration Department.
“Making a public statement that has the effect of adversely affecting social harmony and promoting caste-based animosity and other discipline Rules by engaging in conduct attracting disciplinary action,” he stated.
“No civil servant, irrespective of rank, can publicly criticise constitutionally mandated policies in a manner that hurts social fabric,” the source stated.
Read More
Today, Constitution Day, President Murmu will unveil a statute in nine languages
Today, Justice Surya Kant will be sworn in as the 53rd Chief Justice of India