Senior IAS officer Umrao Salodia, who has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government of discrimination and has even dragged Prime Minister Narendra Modi into the controversy, may not face any immediate action. The BJP government will tread cautiously as Mr Salodia has played the caste card by publicly venting his ire.
It seems there was some lateral thinking after health minister Rajendra Singh Rathore rebuked Mr Salodia for speaking against the government publicly and making wrong accusations besides warning him of action for violating service rules.
Mr Salodia has alleged that the BJP government denied him the chief secretary’s post as he is a dalit. He dragged chief minister Vasundhara Raje as well as Mr Narendra Modi into this matter, saying that both of them ignored him.
“I requested an appointment to meet the chief minister but didn’t get it. I also wrote letters to the Prime Minister but didn’t get any relief from him too. No one paid attention to my grievance,” Mr Salodia had alleged in a press conference on Thursday.
There is merit in what the health minister had said, as Mr Salodia used government resources for his press conference.
The invitations were sent by official mail ID, the PRO had been asked to call up beat reporters for the press conference but was kept in the dark about the real reason for it and the bill for the venue was paid in Mr Salodia’s official capacity as roadways chairman.
However, vary of the political sensitivity of the issue, the BJP government may not act in haste to avoid handing over an issue to the Opposition, which in the past has effectively used MoS V.K. Singh’s “dog analogy” and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s reservation comment to brand it anti-dalit and anti-backward classes. Its image of a party of upper castes doesn’t make it easy but by converting to Islam, Mr Salodia has made it even tougher for the BJP to act against him without weighing the political implications. Besides, Ms Raje, who holds the portfolio of department of personnel, is out of town.
Meanwhile, Mr Salodia came to his office as usual but didn’t meet anyone apart from his staff. His family has feigned ignorance about his intentions of converting to Islam. His wife said that they came to know about it from news on TV channels.
