‘Mallu Hindu’ WhatsApp group row: Kerala government suspends two IAS officials

In an unusual move, the State government suspended two top IAS officers late Monday on charges of official misconduct, neglect of service rules, and impropriety.

The officials subjected to punitive action are Industries department Director K. Gopalakrishnan and Special Secretary, Agriculture, N. Prasanth.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan suspended the officials based on an inquiry report submitted by Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan.

Mr. Gopalakrishnan came under departmental scrutiny for allegedly creating a WhatsApp group of civil servants titled “Mallu Hindu”.

News reports of the alleged existence of a Civil Service group based on religious and regional lines at the core of the State government had wrongfooted the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the final campaign phase of the byelections in the Chelakkara and Palakkad Assembly constituencies and the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat.

The alleged existence of such a group also raised the spectre of stoking discord between different groups of people and cast a cloud of suspicion over the so-called default secular nature of the State’s top bureaucracy.

Moreover, a State police inquiry reportedly found little merit in Mr. Gopalakrishnan’s contention that anonymous persons had hacked his mobile phone. By some accounts, Mr. Gopalakrishnan also risked legal jeopardy, including perjury and tampering with evidence.

Ms. Muraleedharan reportedly found that Mr. Prasanth had crossed a line by publicly criticising Additional Chief Secretary A. Jayathilak.

She also allegedly found that Mr. Prasanth’s “disparaging social media posts” about a superior officer bordered on insubordination and broadcast a brazen disregard for civil service hierarchy.

Moreover, Mr. Prasanth also received political ire from the LDF. J. Mercykutty Amma, a Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader and former Fisheries Minister in the first Pinarayi Vijayan government, accused Mr. Prasanth of conspiring against the government to help the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition.

Ms. Mercykutty’s complaint against Mr. Prasanth was that he created the “false impression” that the LDF government was in cahoots with international deep-sea fishing conglomerates to exploit the State’s marine resources at the expense of traditional fishers’ welfare and livelihoods.

In the run-up to the 2021 Assembly elections, the UDF, with an eye on the votes of the sizeable coastal community, a crucial electoral bloc, accused the Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation of entering into a secret accord with a U.S.-based company to build a fleet of deep-sea trawlers on a built-operate-transfer basis.

The UDF mobilised fishers from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram to press its demand for a judicial inquiry into the secret accord.