E-Paper
Naik row: Colleagues back suspended joint secretary
NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented move, 15 joint secretaries serving in the MHA met home minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday and urged him to reconsider the decision
NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented move, 15 joint secretaries serving in the MHA met home minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday and urged him to reconsider the decision to suspend senior IAS officer G K Dwivedi over renewal of FCRA licence of controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik’s NGO.
They conveyed to the home minister that Dwivedi, who was serving as joint secretary (foreigners) in the home ministry, has been “wrongly punished” for the alleged lapses of his juniors, who reportedly facilitated the renewal of FCRA licence of Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation (IRF).
The move by the joint secretaries is seen as unprecedented as there is no record of similar incident in the past, where the bureaucrats joined hands to stand by one of their colleagues.
Sources said the senior officers also said that Dwivedi is an honest officer and such action sends “wrong signal” and is “demoralising” for others.
The home minister assured that the joint secretaries that he will look into the matter, the sources said. Dwivedi also separately met the home minister to plead his case.
Dwivedi, along with three of his junior officers, was suspended last week after the government found that the FCRA licence of an NGO, run by Naik, was renewed by the Home Ministry’s Foreigners Division, headed by him (Dwivedi), despite the ongoing probe against Islamic preacher for allegedly promoting extremism.
On Saturday, four joint secretaries had met Union Home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi with the same demand.
“It is demoralising for honest officers. I feel injustice has been done to Mr Dwivedi. We have conveyed our feelings,” joint secretary (police-I) in the home ministry, Kumar Alok, said when asked whether he had met the Union home secretary, pleading Dwivedi’s case.
