Gujarat IAS officer sent back from Bihar after he said ‘can’t have Dalit, OBC staff’

Nandan, appointed observer for the Paliganj constituency in Patna, allegedly told local officials that ‘‘no person belonging to the reserved category should be posted’’ on his staff during his stay in Patna. He reportedly checked up several times to ensure that the driver, liaison officer, security officials and even the escort are not ‘‘from the reserved category.’’ ‘‘They could lodge complaints against me under the Atrocities Act,’’ he is reported to have told local officials. When local officials protested, he reminded them of the punitive actions that he could take for ‘‘disobeying the orders of a representative of the Election Commission.’’

Within a week of his stay in Patna, Nandan’s behaviour came to be widely resented. His presentation on the software that he claimed to be in use in Gujarat was at a formal meeting to review election arrangements. Nandan reportedly talked about the utility of such a software to pick and choose officials according to caste and religion. Senior state election officials informally conveyed this to the EC and Nandan was recalled on October 3, sources in the state government told The Indian Express.

Admitting that the EC removed Nandan for displaying caste bias, Deputy Election Commissioner in charge of the Bihar polls, Anand Kumar, said: ‘‘The Election Commission wants its observers to work without bias whether it is religious, caste, language or political. The observers should be neutral and also percieved to be so. Any kind of bias shown by any of them is dealt very strictly. So when we relieved complaints against this particular observer, we summarily removed him.’’

Nandan, Fisheries Commissioner with the Gujarat Government, said he came back with the Election Commission’s permission because of ‘‘cough and cold.’’

He said he had no knowledge of allegations of casteism against him. ‘‘If anyone has actually made such allegations, these are baseless,’’ he said. He said he would go back to Bihar whenever the EC wanted. Gujarat Chief Secretary Sudhir Mankad said that the EC had informed him that they were sending Nandan back, but he he did not know why.

In May 2005, L V Saptarishi, who was a special observer in Bihar for the 2004 Lok Sabha election, had accused some members of the EC of caste bias.

Later, an Indian Express report revealed Saptarishi himself had made uncharitable remarks on the caste of a District Superintendent of Police.

(With Santwana Bhattacharya/New Delhi & Bashir Pathan/Gandhinagar)