Why it's not achche din for Ashok Khemka

While the rest of India ponders on the gains of reposing trust in Narendra Modi, it is clearly not "achche din" for Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka. He now holds the national record for the number of times he has been transferred – 46 times over 22 years! That, if you’re not up to doing the math yourself, is once every five-and-a-half months or thereabouts!

Contrary to the notion that the whistle-blowing officer would find some measure of respite after Haryana elected a BJP government last October, and Prime Minister Modi personally anointed Manohar Lal Khattar, a former RSS pracharak, as the state’s new chief minister, he is clearly still way inside the woods.

Things did seem to be looking up when in November Khattar "rescued" Khemka from the insignificant portfolio foisted upon him by Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s government. That was just part of the Congress’ retribution after the 49-year-old IAS officer dared to make public “favours” meted out to party president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra.

Khattar did perhaps make an honest bid to make things right. Khemka was rehabilitated and posted as Haryana’s transport commissioner. Unfortunately for both the chief minister and the officer, the position came with wide-ranging powers.

But bereft of administrative experience, acumen or wisdom prior to taking over as CM, Khattar had no way of comprehending the levels of “mischief” an officer of Khemka’s calibre could play in, what to him, had seemed like a mundane charge.

Incorrigible, as he hopefully will always be, the officer who remained steadfast in the face of “death threats” and peer boycotts after he exposed the Vadra-DLF, quickly got down to business.

Within weeks after he took charge Khemka cracked down on corrupt trucking mafias. Besides ordering oversized carriers, not conforming to the Motor Vehicles Act, off the road, he also stepped up checks to penalise truckers carrying illegally excessive loads. By January the truckers went on strike, and Khattar panicked. Not only did his government overrule Khemka’s "no overloading and oversized trucks" diktat to give trucking companies another full year to comply with rules, but then decided to "nip the problem in the bud".

Ashok Khemka was summarily reassigned to the department of "archeology & museums" perhaps in the hope that he would not be able to interfere with anything contemporary.

The officer tweeted his agony on April 2: “Tried hard to address corruption and bring reforms in transport despite severe limitations and entrenched interests. Moment is truly painful”.

CM Khattar says Khemka is “honest” and his transfer was “routine”. Haryana health minister Anil Vij is an admirer and swears he “will stand by and support Khemka”. Agriculture minister OP Dhankar believes the officer needs to be disciplined for “going to the press”. And clearly at a loss and for want of anything better to offer, former BJP Union minister Shahnawaz Hussain suggests that "archeology is an important department too".

Who knows Haryana’s long-ignored archeological excavations could well and uncomfortably (for the BJP) reveal both beef and bacon were part of the desi diet in archeological times? Perhaps it will now really be achche din for Ashok Khemka.