Between the lines: What the Tamil Nadu ex-chief secretary is really trying to insinuate about the CM

Rarely has a bureaucrat launched such a scathing attack on a government he is working for. But on Tuesday, less than a week after his home and offices were raided by the Income Tax department, former Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao came out all guns blazing in an attempt to paint the searches as a political conspiracy.

The collateral damage in this attack is the image of Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, who is already fighting to stave off challenges from within his ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

On the face of it, Rao’s move seems like a good strategy. The press conference he gave on Tuesday has shifted the focus from allegations of corruption against him to issues of federal rights.

Rao was the state’s highest-ranking bureaucrat when the raids were conducted, but he was removed from his position the next day.

In questioning the authority of the Income Tax department to enter his office at the Fort St. George, the seat of power in Tamil Nadu as it did on December 21, Rao has also questioned Pannerselvam’s ability to function freely, without interference from New Delhi. He attempted to contrast Panneerselvam’s style of functioning with that of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, whose position he took over after she died on December 5. Had she been alive, Rao declared, the Centre would not have dared to conduct the raids. The insinuation was that Panneerselvam was weak and had bowed to the whims of the Centre.

The Opposition, which has sensed an opportunity to attack the state government, was quick to build the pressure and has put its weight behind the Centre. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam treasurer MK Stalin said the Income Tax department functioned under an independent law and seem to have acted on credible evidence against Rao.

However, he said Panneerselvam’s silence was adding to the mystery and demanded a statement from the chief minister on the issue.

Serious allegations

Income Tax officials had entered Rao’s residence at 5.30 am on December 21 , along armed paramilitary personnel. In the evening, the searches moved to the state secretariat, even as Pannerselvam was still working in his office in the same complex.

This was Rao’s first question on Tuesday. Did the chief minister give his approval for the raids? The question is more tricky than it seems. The searches came a day after Panneerselvam had met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Capital. Back in Chennai, the chief minister’s cabinet colleagues openly demanded that Sasikala Natarajan, the close aide of Jayalalithaa, take over as chief minister. Permission to allow Income Tax officials to enter the secretariat was quid pro quo for Modi’s support for Panneerselvam, Rao hinted.

This speculation was fueled by support the chief minister received from senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in Tamil Nadu. BJP national secretary H Raja went to the extent of stating that removing Panneerselvam would lead to administrative paralysis.

If Sasikala harbours ambitions of becoming state chief minister, the suggestion that Panneerselvam is weak could be used against him in a power struggle. Curiously, while the chief minister has remained silent, AIADMK leaders like S R Balasubramaniam and Dheeran have criticised the raids, leading to speculation about who gave them the orders to do so.

Rao also alleged that the search warrants did not have his name but had been issued for his son Vivek Papisetty, who has not lived with him for the past 10 years. However, the panchanama, a document issued by officials to record items seized after a search, mentioned that the warrant was to search the chambers of the chief secretary at Fort St. George. Dismissing media reports on large seizures from his home, he said the officials had found only Rs 1.12 lakh, about 40 sovereigns of gold and some silver items. At the secretariat, they only found bills he had paid at the Madras Racecourse Club, a popular social club in Chennai.

All through the press conference, Rao sought to emphasise that he was Jayalalithaa’s choice and that he had been nurtured by the late AIADMK general secretary. “Had Amma [Jayalalithaa] been alive, the raids wouldn’t have happened,” he repeated. By doing so, he indirectly accused Panneerselvam of functioning in a manner that did not reflect the template created by Jayalalithaa, which in the AIADMK is akin to heresy.

His second allegation questioned the very authority of the chief minister. Despite the fact that the state government removed him as chief secretary on December 22 and appointed senior officer Girija Vaidyanathan to the post, Rao claimed since he had not been served the transfer order, he remained the chief secretary.

BJP reacts

The Bharatiya Janata Party went on the offensive after Rao’s press conference. Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan wondered how a man who had been admitted to the hospital on Saturday with complaints of chest pain could function so energetically just hours after his discharge on Monday night.

Given that Rao thanked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for questioning the raids, she said there were doubts about whether the bureaucrat was being remote controlled by elements opposed to Modi’s fight against corruption.

BJP leader H Raja went further, issuing a threat. He said that the bureaucrat, who denied any links to J Shekar Reddy, the sand mining contractor in Tamil Nadu arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on December 22, would realise his mistakes when he is eventually arrested himself.

Accusing Rao of behaving like small-time politician, Raja said if the former chief secretary had any grievances, the courts were the right forum to raise them.