The State government on Friday came out in support of Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam who was accused by the DMK of humiliating a delegation of its members of Parliament.
Asked for response to the DMK’s complaint to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla against the official, Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar told reporters that the episode had revealed that the DMK, which could not stomach the “efficient functioning” of the government in handling the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic , had sought to deflect the public attention and make “political gains”.
The Minister went on to describe the Chief Secretary as an “honest and straightforward officer,” and said “throughout his career, he has been conducting himself in an impartial manner. Did you ever come across any adverse report about Mr. Shanmugam?”
The DMK could have submitted the petitions that it received [from those affected by the COVID-19 lockdown] either to District Collectors concerned or at the Chief Minister’s Cell, the Minister added.
Meanwhile in a statement, M.G.Devesahayam, social activist and former civil servant, termed as “very unfortunate” that former Union Ministers T.R. Baalu and Dayanidhi Maran had initiated privilege motion in the Lok Sabha against the Chief Secretary. “This is taking things to extremes. This is not the time and place to settle political animosities or score brownie points through civil servants. The DMK leadership would do well to ponder over and repair the damage done to the administrative morale of the State government servants at this hour of grave crisis.”
Mr Shanmugam did not show any “disrespect” to the members of Parliament and “by entertaining such voluminous bunch of papers during a disaster situation, he has given extra respect to the people’s representatives”, Mr Devesahayam added.
