Thiruvanathapuram:

Kerala IAS officer N Prashanth aka ‘Collector Bro’, who has been suspended on disciplinary grounds after he publicly criticised a senior officer, has over 3 lakh followers on Facebook and 50,000 on Instagram. His social media activity had earlier raised politicians’ eyebrows, but the bureaucrat has insisted that social media is the best platform to reach the people.

Ironically, it is his social media criticism of a senior officer that landed him in trouble and led to the government action against him. The 2007-batch IAS officer described Additional Chief Secretary A Jayathilak as a psychopath and accused him of orchestrating baseless news reports against him. Following the state government’s action, the officer has said he is a “whistleblower”. He also said that being an IAS officer was not his sole ambition and he had other interests.

Who Is ‘Collector Bro’?

N Prashanth is from Thalassery in Kerala’s Kannur district. He studied at Loyola School and Government Law College in Thiruvanathapuram. He went on to complete a degree in banking law before joining IAS in 2007. After serving multiple roles, he was appointed Kozhikode district collector in 2015. It was during this stint that he was described as ‘Collector Bro’ for his social media interactions with people and his unique initiatives. One such initiative that grabbed attention was a Facebook message in which he asked people for help to clean a 14-acre pond. He promised the volunteers a plate of Malabar biryani. Several volunteers responded to the call and were rewarded with a biryani treat later.

Later, he wrote a book, Collector Bro: The quixotic ‘thallals’ of a civil servant, describing his experience of leading the Kozhikode district administration. Over the years, he rose to the post of Special Secretary in the SC/ST Development Department.

The Outburst

Mr Prashanth has levelled serious allegations against Additional Chief Secretary Jayathilak. He has described the senior bureaucrat as a “psychopath” and alleged that he ruined the lives of subordinates who did not follow his instructions. The trigger for the outburst was a media report that claimed several files of ‘Unnathi’ — an initiative aimed at the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes — went missing during Mr Prashanth’s tenure as its CEO. The IAS officer trashed the allegations and accused Mr Jayathilak of being a “special reporter” who was allegedly undermining him by planting fake news.

Following the suspension, the IAS officer told a TV channel, “This is a new experience for me. Criticising the government or its policies is wrong and action can be taken. I don’t think anyone will be of the opinion that I have done anything like that. My criticism was aimed at certain individuals’ inappropriate tendencies, particularly regarding fabricated reports. Evidence has also come to light regarding this. I trust that creating fake reports is not a government policy, but if criticising such actions leads to consequences, that’s news to me.”

The Political Backdrop

The action against N Prashanth is also playing out against a political backdrop. CPM leader and former Fisheries Minister J Mercykutty Amma has alleged that the IAS officer was involved in a political conspiracy against her. The plot, she alleged was hatched by Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala and N Prashanth, who was earlier his private secretary.

“Today, Kerala is witnessing the fallout of Shri Prashanth IAS breaking all service rules and common decency. But back in February 2021, Prasanth played the villain in a political conspiracy,” she said in a Facebook post.

She referred to Mr Chennithala’s allegation that the Fisheries Department, then under her, sanctioned a Rs 5,000 crore deep-sea trawler deal. “This news stirred up controversy. When reporters asked me, I clarified that no such deal had taken place. Ramesh Chennithala released a document supposedly showing that an MoU had been signed… Chennithala falsely claimed that the Fisheries Department had signed the MoU, but in reality, it was signed by Prasanth,” she added. Mercykutty Amma lost the 2021 polls in Kundara, which she has represented thrice.

Amid the row, the Congress-led UDF has said government officers in Kerala are fighting each other under the Left regime.

Thiruvanathapuram:

The Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala has suspended two officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) on disciplinary grounds. K Gopalakrishnan, director of Industries and Commerce, faced the action over a religion-based WhatsApp group for government officials. N Prashanth, Agriculture Development and Farmers’ Welfare department’s special secretary, was suspended after he criticised and made serious allegations against a senior officer.

According to officials, the Chief Minister has taken action against the officers following a report by Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan.

Mr Gopalakrishnan, a 2013-batch officer, has been suspended for creating a WhatsApp group named “Mallu Hindu Officers” last month. Following a row, the IAS officer had claimed that his phone was hacked. According to officials, a forensic examination of the phone did not establish that it was hacked and found that the phone was formatted amid the row.

Thiruvananthapuram City Police Commissioner Sparjan Kumar stated that it is unclear whether the device was compromised because it had been “reset”.

In the case of 2007-batch officer N Prashanth, the action followed his outburst against Additional Chief Secretary A Jayathilak in a Facebook post. He accused the senior officer of orchestrating baseless news reports against him. Mr Prashanth alleged that Mr Jayathilak was working to undermine him by spreading unfounded allegations. He described the senior officer as a “psychopath”.

The outburst followed a media report that claimed several files of ‘Unnathi’ — an initiative aimed at the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes — went missing during Mr Prashanth’s tenure as its CEO. Mr Prashanth has earlier worked as Kozhikode District Collector, among other roles. He is quite active on social media and is popularly known as ‘Collector Bro’.

Mr Prashanth has told a news channel that he had not received the details regarding the action against him. “This is a new experience for me. Criticising the government or its policies is wrong and action can be taken. I don’t think anyone will be of the opinion that I have done anything like that. My criticism was aimed at certain individuals’ inappropriate tendencies, particularly regarding fabricated reports. Evidence has also come to light regarding this. I trust that creating fake reports is not a government policy, but if criticising such actions leads to consequences, that’s news to me,” said the officer, who has called himself a “whistleblower”.

He said the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression to all citizens. “I am unaware of any boundary I may have crossed within this right. Let’s see the order, and then I will consider my next step. I was not born with a sole ambition of being an IAS officer. I have other interests and pursuits,” he added.

Earlier, Kerala Revenue Minister K Rajan had said government officers should follow discipline while in service and anyone violating it them would face tough action.

The action against N Prashanth is also playing out against a political backdrop. Former state fisheries minister Mercykutty Amma has accused the IAS officer of working with leaders of the Opposition UDF in a conspiracy to bring corruption charges against her.