New Delhi: Till 2021, 1994-batch IAS officer Praveen Prakash was on the centre of all decision-making in Andhra Pradesh as principal secretary to then chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy. As secretary of the Basic Administration Division (GAD), along with being within the Chief Minister’s Workplace (CMO), civil servants believed Prakash wielded energy not like every other officer within the state.

4 years down the road, the impression price Prakash his profession within the Indian Administrative Service.

“I discovered that deeply humiliating as a result of, as an IAS officer in case you are saved and not using a posting, you haven’t any function,” he stated. “I couldn’t come to the Centre as a result of the identical impression was prevalent there too—that I’m too near Jagan Mohan Reddy, and I loved an excessive amount of energy as his principal secretary. So, after 21 days, I utilized for VRS (voluntary retirement from service), and was granted it.”

Nonetheless, days later, amid stress from his household to return to the service, Prakash determined to avail the choice to withdraw his plea for VRS inside 90 days—an software that he alleges was met with threats of “extreme penalties”.

“When whispers of my need to come back again into service reached the federal government, I used to be instructed that I’ll face extreme penalties if I return,” he stated. “I used to be instructed that I being allowed to depart the service was the least punishment I’ll get.”

However Prakash stated he doesn’t fairly perceive what he’s being punished for. His case and the way his profession was “destroyed” is, in response to him, reflective of the bigger downside of politicisation of the Indian paperwork.

“My criticism from each Jagan Mohan Reddy and Chandrababu Naidu is that they assume we’re staff of the YSRCP or TDP,” he stated. “As IAS officers, we work for them for so long as they’re chief ministers. We don’t have something to do with them as celebration presidents or leaders…they see us as celebration staff of the opposing camp.”

Reddy leads the YSR Congress Occasion (YSRCP) and Naidu the Telugu Desam Occasion (TDP).

IAS officers, by definition, Prakash stated, are risk-averse people. “As a risk-averse particular person, I’d by no means take the chance of aligning myself with one CM after I know that, particularly within the southern states, governments change each 5 years,” he instructed ThePrint.

As soon as a star IAS officer, Prakash has now moved again to his residence state, Uttar Pradesh. He lives in Noida and is working with an edtech firm as its chief adviser.

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‘Was denied central deputation’

Prakash was appointed principal secretary to Reddy in 2019 after a two-year stint as Andhra Pradesh’s resident commissioner in New Delhi.

“Being the resident commissioner of southern states in Delhi is like being the ambassador of a rustic,” he stated. “When the CM comes, you’re his go-to particular person for every thing,” he added, explaining his camaraderie with Naidu when he was the CM beforehand (2014-2019).

“Even when he was opposing the PM and when he was doing conferences in Delhi, I used to be his go-to particular person,” he stated. “He instructed me on 23 Might, 2019, that he’s going to come back again to energy, and he would need me to move the CMO.”

Nonetheless, whereas Naidu misplaced the election, Prakash did handle to move Reddy’s CMO.

“Initially, I needed to battle this notion by Jagan Mohan Reddy additionally that I used to be too near Naidu,” he stated. “He instructed me that I had crossed all Lakshman-rekhas (strains), and labored like a TDP worker, and never a civil servant.”

“It took some convincing on my half that I used to be solely a authorities worker, and after that, there was an prompt understanding between us,” Prakash stated.

Whereas he was believed to wield huge energy as principal secretary, Prakash stated he nonetheless instructed Reddy in 2021 that he wished to maneuver to a different project. “I had served within the CMO for over two years, and felt there have been diminishing returns by way of what I may supply in that submit,” he defined. “I additionally wished my juniors to get that have.”

Whereas initially Reddy was reluctant to let him go—saying that these days, posts of principal secretary to the PM and CM are coterminous—lastly, he agreed. In 2021, Prakash turned secretary of faculty training.

Throughout this time, he was additionally denied central deputation by central authorities authorities as a result of opaque 360-degree analysis, he instructed ThePrint.

“I had labored as joint secretary in city affairs and dealt with Swacch Bharat mission earlier. As JS, my ACR (annual confidential report) was an ideal 10,” he stated. “However simply due to the impression that energy had gone to my head as principal secretary, I used to be denied central deputation.”

“I instructed the authorities repeatedly that I may work as joint secretary on the Centre despite the fact that my batchmates have been working as further secretaries, simply to reveal my need to work, however I used to be not granted central deputation,” he added.

“The distinction between PCS (Provincial Civil Service) officer and an All India Service (AIS) officer is that if the latter is dealing with hassle within the state, they’ll come to the Centre, however all of the doorways have been shut for me,” he stated. “So, if I’ve a grievance towards the state management, I even have a grievance towards the Centre—they didn’t stand for an AIS officer.”

The 2019 controversy when Prakash allegedly shunted out then Andhra chief secretary L.V. Subrahmanyam, an officer of the 1983 batch, after the latter issued a show-cause discover to him over an alleged procedural lapse, performed a task in convincing the institution in Delhi that he had an excessive amount of of an air about himself, he stated.

Nonetheless, it’s an allegation that Prakash has denied through the years. “I used to be solely executing the directions of the CM. I used to be not the supply of the choice,” he asserted.

“The impression that we work for politicians has price me dearly,” he reiterated, arguing that as a graduate of IIT Kanpur, he may have had a particularly profitable profession within the discipline of know-how.

It’s a tendency shared by each Reddy and Naidu, he stated. “Even Jagan Mohan Reddy shunted out a number of officers when he got here to energy, and Naidu did the identical,” he added. “This makes the lives of IAS, IPS (Indian Police Service) officers very tough.”

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)

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