Maha IAS, IPS firmly backs Uddhav Thackeray’s MVA

Mumbai: Maharashtra’s bureaucracy has thrown its weight firmly behind the Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena)- led MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi ) government after more than two years of sustained BJP-sponsored public campaigns predicting the imminent break-up of the Shiv Sena-NCP Congress alliance.

“Uncertainty was always in the air for the most part of the twoand-a-half-year tenure of the MVA, so far. Every three months, there would be fresh talk of an imminent collapse, which kept the state bureaucracy under a fair degree of uncertainty about their future careers,” a senior state secretariat official told First India, asking not to be named.

According to the bureaucrat, “The main reason for the continued uncertainty was the widespread belief among the IAS—and even IPS—cadre that the Shiv Sena would sooner than later feel compelled to break ties with the so-called ‘secular parties’ (NCP and Congress) owing to its hard-line Hindutva ideology. It is now clear, and reiterated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, that the Sena has burnt its bridges with the BJP for good. A possible alliance between the two in the immediate future is not a probability.”

The recent transfers of several Maharashtra-cadre IAS and IPS officials are being cited as proof of the changed political equations. For example, officials perceived to be close to the erstwhile Fadnavis-led dispensation, including former Maharashtra Director General of Police Subodh Jaiswal (moved to New Delhi) now CBI director, former CMO Chief Praveen Pardeshi, replaced as BMC Chief by Iqbal Singh Chahal, who lost out to Sitaram Kunte for the post of Chief Secretary under the MVA government was accommodated in New Delhi in the Union Department of Personnel.

Similarly, IPS officers (retired Maharashtra DGs) Pravind Dixit and AM Kulkarni were appointed as Special Rapporteurs of the National Human Rights Commission (Maharashtra and Goa) and ADG in the NIA, respectively, by an order issued on May 12. Former Maharashtra SID Chief Rashmi Shukla was also repatriated to the Central IPS cadre when things got sticky for her under the MVA government.

“Almost all of these appointments were at the behest of former CM Devendra Fadnavis. There is clarity of focus now. For example, an officer like Bhushan Gagrani, who served as Principal Secretary in the Fadnavis CMO was cited by Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray’s office for exemplary work over the last year,” the senior secretariat official told First India.