Hours after the Prime Minister’s Office announced that Home Secretary L C Goyal’s request for voluntary retirement has been accepted, the Congress said the bureaucrat was “forced to seek voluntary retirement” 17 months before the completion of his two-year fixed tenure. It accused the government of “discarding” and “dispensing with” processes, showing “disrespect” to senior civil servants and creating an “atmosphere of uncertainty, fear and distrust”. [related-post] Congress leader Anand Sharma said Goyal’s move to seek information about the Naga accord could be one of the reasons behind his “removal”. “This is that mindset which says ‘how dare the Home Ministry ask for details about the accord’,” he said. Sharma said senior civil servants, especially secretaries of Home, Foreign and Defence ministries, are unable to discharge their duties in such an atmosphere. He said there is “complete concentration” of powers in the PMO when it comes to “decision making, policy making and key appointments”.
