Vyapam whistleblower’s teacher mother suspended for ‘attending’ Congress meeting
Mukesh Pandey
NewsBits.in
Harda: In a hurried action, the Harda chief municipal officer (CMO) suspended Sulekha Rai, a primary school teachers’ cadre employee (shikshakarmi) and mother of Vyapam whistleblower Dr Anand Rai, for reportedly attending a Congress meeting in the district.
The action came on December 18 despite it being a Sunday and just two days after the meeting in question. A newspaper report mentioning presence of Rai at the Congress meeting was cited in the suspension order.
The ground for suspension is that model code of conduct for the Harda Municipal Council election is in place and participation in any political programme or association with a particular political party is violation of service rules as well as section 129 of People’s Representation Act, 1951.
Sulekha Rai has said that she had just gone to meet a Congress leader who was a family friend after her duty hours and she was not aware of the code of conduct rules.
Her son Anand Rai, who is one of the main whistleblowers of the Vyapam scam, alleged that the action of the Harda administration clearly reeked of targeting of his family.
He said that his mother was a Congress office bearer before she joined government service and had gone to meet Rajkumar Patel, former state minister as he was a family friend at the meeting venue, which was no violation of rules.
He said that they would challenge the suspension order in Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Dr Rai and his wife – both government doctors - have also been repeatedly transferred and other disciplinary action taken them, something Dr Rai has been claiming as targeting of the family because of his role in exposing Vyapam scam and other irregularities in the state health and medical education departments.
Dr Rai said that action on his mother was immediate and harsh despite only a flimsy ground, he could name at least five senior government doctors in Indore who either Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) office bearers or are publicly supportive of the ruling party.
“It is strange that these senior doctors have faced no action for violation of service conduct rules, but my mother has to suffer just because of my activities,” Dr Rai said while talking to NewsBits.in.
