IAS officer popular as ‘collector bro’ on social media suspended

Prasanth was suspended for violating service conduct rules by making derogatory statements on social media against addl chief secy in finance department

From being hailed as the “collector bro” for his ingenious social media initiatives as the district collector of Kozhikode between 2015 and 17 to now being suspended on charges of “grave indiscipline” and “derogatory statements” on the same online platforms, IAS officer N Prasanth’s career in Kerala has seen an interesting graph of ups and downs.

N Prasanth (HT Photo)

Prasanth, a 2007-batch officer and writer who commands around 3 lakh followers on Facebook, was suspended by the LDF government on Monday for violating service conduct rules by making derogatory statements on social media against additional chief secretary in the finance department Dr A Jayathilak.

Prasanth, who referred to Jayathilak as “mentally-ill” in a Facebook comment by borrowing a dialogue from a Malayalam film, also alleged that the senior officer declared himself as the next chief secretary of the state.

“The government is prima facie satisfied that these remarks of N Prasanth IAS amount to grave indiscipline and that such remarks undermine the public image of the administrative machinery in the state. The remarks prima facie also have the potential of creating divisiveness and disaffection in the Indian administrative service in the state that can also affect service to the public. These remarks are prima facie further found to be unbecoming of an officer borne in the cadre of the Indian administrative service,” the government order against the officer read.

The officer was suspended based on the report submitted by chief secretary Sarada Muraleedharan to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who signed on the file on Monday.

Prasanth, who was serving as the special secretary in the agriculture department, told reporters on Tuesday that he will make a detailed statement after receiving the suspension order in person.

“The Constitution does not say anywhere that I should sweet-talk everyone. The conduct rules restrict only officers like us. This is my first suspension in life. I spent five years in the Government Law College, but was not suspended even once. Anyway, let me receive the government order in person. I don’t know what it says,” the officer added.

He also told select local media networks that Article 19 of the Constitution guaranteed him the rights to freedom of speech and expression with the help of which he made public remarks on social media. “I am also an Indian citizen. Just because I am in the IAS officer, my citizenship rights are not denied. The service conduct rules bar criticism of the government and its policies. That’s understandable, but I can’t be expected to sweet-talk everyone,” he told a TV channel.

The stint that earned him the “collector bro” fame

Prasanth earned the moniker “collector bro” during his two-year stint as the collector of Kozhikode district between 2015 and 2017.

At a time when social platforms such as Facebook were deepening roots in the state, the young officer made excellent use of it to bring out new initiatives to deepen community engagement.

Through the “Tere Mere Beach Mein” programme, he exhorted the public, especially the youth, to engage in waste management and cleaning of garbage at the popular Kozhikode beach. He then kickstarted “Operation Sulaimani”, a decentralised participatory project to address hunger in urban areas. As part of the plan, restaurants in the city would pool in funds and give out free meals using tokens to those starving and hungry.

The “Yo Apooppa” project similarly was aimed at improving the lives of the elderly in the district. His idea to get the youth to clean a big lake in the district by working collectively in return for tasty servings of the Kozhikodan biryani was a huge success and made a lot of waves.

Fond of writing books, Prasanth also penned a couple of them titled, “Broswamikathakal” and “Collector bro: The quixotic thallals of a civil service”, taking pages out of his experiences in his civil service journey.

After his Kozhikode stint, Prasanth boarded the train to Delhi to serve as the private secretary to then Union minister of state for tourism KJ Alphons, who is also from Kerala. However, the stint was short-lived and in June 2018, he exited the minister’s office to continue working in the central pool.

Prasanth’s stint as the managing director of Kerala State Inland Navigation Corporation in 2021 was marked by a controversy in the backdrop of a ₹5,000-crore MoU signed with EMCC International to build a fleet of deep-sea trawlers on a build-operate-transfer basis.

CPM leader J Mercykutty Amma, who was then the fisheries minister, recently hit out at Prasanth for conspiring against the LDF government back in 2021 at the behest of the UDF and then leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala. The minister said that the IAS officer played a role in hatching a political controversy against her over striking a deal with international fishing conglomerates for deep-sea fishing. She said that she was accused of selling the sea and its rich marine resources when she was not even aware of the MoU signed by the KSINC.