Rajasthan government to transfer ‘RSS-minded’ employees before civic polls

Ahead of the civic bodies and panchayat elections in Rajasthan, the Congress government is preparing for large scale transfers of “RSS-minded” government officials, a senior Congress leader said referring to the officials who support the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

The large scale transfers are expected to take place after the assembly session adjourns on August 5. Congress leaders see this as an opportunity to recoup lost ground in state after the washout in the Lok Sabha elections where the party did not win even one seat.

According to the Congress leader, the MLAs and district level office bearers of the party are complaining that their work is not being done and they are demanding that transfers be carried out. The government is under pressure from its legislators and workers, he added.

While the government had transferred some officials before the code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections came into effect, a fresh round of transfers is on the anvil now.

Rajasthan Congress secretary Rupesh Kant Vyas said MLAs and organisation leaders have urged chief minister Ashok Gehlot “to shunt out RSS-minded officers from important posts”.

“The Congress government has been in power for six months. But still officers appointed by the previous BJP government are sitting on important posts and are not working,” he said.

Vyas said transfers were needed because government employees such as teachers, who are affiliated to the RSS ideology and would be engaged by the election department during the elections, would work against the Congress party’s interests.

Chief minister Ashok Gehlot has also attacked the RSS on different occasions saying it should declare itself a political party and calling it an extra-constitutional authority that has a hold on the government.

According to Prahlad Sharma, former president of the Rajasthan Shikshak Sangh (Rashtriya), the government is targeting those employees who are seen as right wing supporters. “The government has placed several teachers who are seen as close to the BJP or RSS on APO and posting their own people on those posts,” he alleged.

Minister of state for education Govind Dotasara has already said that transfers will be carried out after the assembly session. He said the BJP had carried out transfers on political grounds and had tried to impose the RSS agenda on the education department

However, Vasudev Devnani, school education minister in the BJP regime, said that the BJP had not done any political victimization nor had it carried out transfers on political grounds. “The Congress government should not politicise transfers. Government employees are not members of any political party. They should be judged on basis of their output,” he said.