Rajendra Kumar, former principal secretary to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has sought voluntary retirement from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), said he will continue to be in public service and did not rule out the possibility of joining politics.
Other avenues
“I need to, I have to, and I must look for other avenues of public service. I am a sincere believer that the medium of government provides one the best way of serving the people, to go on the path of public service,” the 1989 batch IAS officer said in an interview on Friday.
Mr Kumar said as he had sought voluntary retirement, providing public service through the government was closed and he would look for new ways to serve the public.
“Once that is stopped for me, much against my wishes, I will look for other avenues of public service. There are NGOs, there are many good private companies and I may also consider politics as one of the good paths for public service,” he said.
The winner of the prestigious Prime Minister’s Award in Public Administration and an IIT alumni, Mr Kumar said proving his innocence wouldn’t be the end of his legal fight.
“A person of my standing, my seniority, a person who has got the highest award for public service in this country, a person whom so many people know, if he can be maligned and haunted like this then there are millions of people who, without being at the wrong side of the law, are being haunted and are being wronged. The fight is theirs,” he said.
Asked if those persons who are allegedly harassing him should be made accountable, he said: “All these people will have to be made accountable for their actions and I am sure it will happen.”
He said controversial former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) DIG Sanjeev Gautam had offered to let him off the hook if he helped them get Mr Kejriwal legally entangled.
B.K. Bansal, the former director general in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, who committed suicide after the CBI arrested him for allegedly receiving a bribe, had named Mr Gautam in his suicide note.
Mr Bansal accused Mr Gautam of harassing his wife and daughter, both of whom had committed suicide earlier. Mr Bansal and his son committed suicide later.
