‘Whitewashed Tombs’: Kerala IAS officer’s farewell day post targets outgoing Chief Secretary

Thiruvananthapuram, June 30 (IANS) Hours before Kerala Chief Secretary A. Jayathilak laid down office on Tuesday evening after more than three decades in the civil service, senior IAS officer N. Prasanth rekindled one of the state’s most public bureaucratic feuds with an unusually sharp social media post that many viewed as a direct indictment of the outgoing top bureaucrat.

Without naming Jayathilak anywhere in the text, Prasanth shared a photograph of the Chief Secretary alongside a lengthy essay titled “Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah”, reflecting on power, public office, and accountability.

The timing of the post on the very day Jayathilak retires and as the government prepared to accord him the customary farewell at Durbar Hall in the Secretariat ensured it quickly became the day’s dominant talking point within bureaucratic and political circles.

The essay argues that authority is only temporary and that those occupying high office often fall prey to the illusion that they are indispensable.

It says bureaucrats who spend decades in the corridors of power can become convinced that their influence will never fade until time sweeps them away.

Drawing from Poonthanam’s ‘Jnanappana’, the ‘Bhagavad Gita’, and ‘The Gospel of Matthew’, the post criticises what it describes as the culture of sycophancy surrounding powerful officials, alleging that farewell ceremonies often sanitise an officer’s record by portraying arrogance as administrative firmness and wrongdoing as efficiency.

One of its most striking passages quotes Matthew 23:27, comparing hypocrites to “whitewashed tombs” that appear beautiful externally while hiding decay within.

The essay also contends that future generations should not mistake fear for respect, silence for consent or the absence of punishment for innocence, adding that personal forgiveness should never preclude legal accountability wherever laws have been violated.

Although Prasanth did not explicitly identify Jayathilak in the text, the accompanying photograph of the retiring official and the timing left little doubt among officials about whom the message was intended.

The post marks the latest chapter in a prolonged and bitter rivalry between the two IAS officers.

Their differences had repeatedly spilled into the public domain during the previous administration, when Prasanth levelled a series of allegations against sections of the bureaucracy through social media.

Those developments eventually led to disciplinary proceedings and a prolonged suspension under the previous government headed by Pinarayi Vijayan.

Prasanth was reinstated into service earlier this month after the new government assumed office.

Ironically, as the State assembles at the Secretariat’s Durbar Hall to bid a formal farewell to Jayathilak in the presence of Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan, Prasanth’s post ensured that the outgoing Chief Secretary’s final day in office was accompanied not merely by ceremonial tributes but also by a renewed public reminder of one of the Kerala bureaucracy’s most contentious internal battles.

–IANS

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