New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh’s caste politics could be behind Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government’s suspension order of senior Andhra Pradesh IPS officer A.B. Venkateswara Rao, two senior IPS officers familiar with the developments told ThePrint.
Rao, a 1989-batch IPS officer who is known to be the ‘Man Friday’ of former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, was suspended Saturday for “serious misconduct” and “direct threat to national security”.
The suspended officer belongs to the Kamma community, whose clout has reportedly been eclipsed in the state government ever since Reddy came to power last year. His government has accused Naidu of patronising the Kamma community, which regards the ex-CM as its icon, and resorting to caste prejudice and cronyism.
According to one of the senior IPS officers, Rao is an “extremely opinionated person”, who doesn’t keep his opinions to himself.
“He is driven by a very strong pro-Kamma feeling. So during Chandrababu Naidu’s time, when officers of the Reddy caste were being driven out, officers like Rao were actively promoted,” said the officer who didn’t wish to be named.
“As officers, we know that we cannot cross certain limits in terms of exhibiting too much loyalty to one government… He did that during Naidu’s time, so what we are seeing now is a result of that,” the officer added.
In December, the Reddy government suspended 1990-batch IRS officer J. Krishna Kishore, who belongs to the Kamma community, pending criminal proceedings against him by the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Crime Investigation Department (CID). Former CM Naidu had then accused Reddy’s government of intimidating civil servants.
Rao was reportedly on the “hit-list” of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Speaking to ThePrint, Andhra Pradesh government’s spokesperson Jaswanth Reddy elaborated on the misconduct allegations against Rao. However, he didn’t comment on the alleged caste angle to the suspension order.
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National security threat
The Andhra Pradesh government placed A.B. Venkateswara Rao under suspension for endangering national security by “willfully disclosing intelligence protocols and procedures of the police to foreign defence manufacturing firm”.
Rao has been accused of collusion with an Israeli defence equipment manufacturer, RT Inflatables Private Limited, with the intention to “illegally award critical intelligence and surveillance contract to his son Chetan Sai Krishna”.
According to the order, Krishna, chief executive of Akasam Advanced System Pvt Ltd, bid for the contract on behalf of RT Inflatables.
“This proves a direct co-relation between the accused officer and a Foreign Defence Manufacturing Firm thus establishing a direct breach of ethical code of conduct and Rule (3)(a) of All India Service (Conduct) Rules, 1968,” said the Saturday order — which has been accessed by ThePrint — against the officer.
The order said his actions could “critically hamper security situation as use of sub-standard equipment by police force may put them in a dangerous situation, through access to state secrets and potential monopoly over future procurements of Andhra Pradesh police due to access to insider information”.
Rao has been transferred to Vijayawada. He has also been barred from leaving the city without the government’s permission.
ThePrint reached Rao for a comment, but there was no response until the time of publishing this report.
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Rao is not new to controversy
While his suspension has already led to Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP and Jagan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party exchanging barbs, with the former accusing the current regime of taking political revenge, A.B. Venkateswara Rao’s career in the IPS has been fraught with controversies.
In April last year, during the general and state polls in Andhra Pradesh, the Election Commission (EC) ordered his removal as Intelligence, Director General, upon receiving several complaints from YSRCP, which was then in opposition, for acting in a manner seen to be biased towards the TDP.
EC’s decision led to a full-blown row between the Naidu government and the poll body. The former appointed him as the chief of the state’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) soon after he was removed by the EC.
But having been on the YSRCP “hit-list”, Rao could not retain this position for a long time either. The day Reddy came to power he removed Rao as the ACB chief and ordered him to report to the general administration department.
‘New trend’
While it is common for officers known to be loyal to one regime to be given less prominent postings when the opposition comes to power, the trend of placing these officers under suspension is new to Andhra Pradesh, said the IPS officer quoted above.
“Suspension was common in Tamil Nadu, not Andhra. This is a new, and, may I say, a dangerous trend,” said the officer.
“Now, if the Reddy government goes out of power, their loyalists will also not be spared… The question is to what extent are you going to go in order to punish,” added the officer.
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