Delhi’s former Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar, who was seemingly the target of a witch hunt by Najeeb Jung, has written a scathing blog post dripping with sarcasm, levelling several allegations against the man who recently resigned as the union territory’s Lieutenant Governor.
Chief among those allegations are that Jung tried to “teach” Kumar a lesson using the CBI, and that the former Lt Governor had tried to victimise a Vice-Chancellor of a Delhi Government university, with whom he had some personal rivalry.
Kumar, who had held several key positions in the previous Sheila Dikshit government, had allegedly been seen by the Centre as being close to the Aam Aadmi Party government. In his letter titled, To Sir With Regards, Rajendra Kumar said, “I met you a few times during the 49-day Government and you had been kind to me. After that government fell, you called me to your office and told me that many people have informed you that I have identified myself too closely with Aam Aadmi Party. When I asked you about your opinion, you kept quiet. Probably I was stupid enough not to understand that the “many people” was you. Complexity of english language has been my shortcoming. I accept it.”
Kumar goes on to say that he was targeted for his alleged closeness to the AAP government, and that Jung tried to “educate” him about what was good for him.
“You were always concerned about me, my welfare and my education. You spoke to a senior officer of CBI and sought his help to educate me. He was not wise and he politely excused himself. After sometime he retired. But your desire to help and reform me continued. You later met a top officer of MHA and a top officer of CBI and stressed upon them the urgent national interest issue of helping and educating me. You have extraordinary oratory skills and they got convinced. Then my education started. People visited my house and my office and I was called many times to country's premier educational and transformational institution. Umpteen number of other people were also called for that education. Some were given special lessons,” the blog post reads.
Kumar was charged by the CBI with corruption and criminal conspiracy for favouring a private IT firm in awarding government contracts worth Rs 9.5 crore. His arrest in July last year was among the most visible effects of the power play over the tussle between the Centre, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the AAP government ruling the national capital.
Delhi’s Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had lashed out at the Centre. “All this has been done to paralyse the Chief Minister’s office,” he said and challenged the Centre adding, “Mr. Modi, even if you leave us with just peons, we will run the government.”
Jung resigned last month in a surprise move, referring to which Kumar, in his blog, says the former governor should not have left as the “lessons” were left incomplete. “Sir you left too early. There was so much to be done. You left me. You went away from your responsibility to educate me. I remained ignorant. I could not get the light of knowledge and wisdom,” Kumar says.
The former principal secretary on January 4 sought voluntary retirement, addressing a 26-page letter to the Chief Minister for his request to be accepted within 3 weeks.
An IAS officer of 1989 batch, Kumar is an IIT Kharagpur alumni, and also a recipient of the Prime Ministers’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration for 2006-07.