Ashok Khemka

Ashok Khemka (अशोक खेमका) is a senior Indian Administrative Service officer in the Indian state of Haryana and best known for cancelling the mutation of Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra's illegal land deal in Gurgaon.^[1][2][3] He has been transferred 45 times in 23 years by state governments after he exposed corruption in the departments he was posted in.^[4]

Early life and education

Ashok Khemka was born in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in 1988 with a B.Tech degree in Computer Science Engineering and followed it up with a Ph.D in Computer Science from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai^[5] and a MBA degree in Business Admn. Finance. He also holds a MA Economics degree from IGNOU.^[6] He also has many publications on various subjects to his name.^[6]

Khemka is a follower of Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry; in a Punjabi news portal, he said, “I try not to be a coward. Tagore’s poetry, especially the song — Jodi tor daak shune Keu naa aashe, tobey ekla cholo re (If no one responds to your call, then go your own way alone ‘) — greatly appeals to me. Government was enigmatic to me, so I chose to work in it.”^[7]

Career

He is a 1991 batch IAS officer of the Haryana Cadre.^[8] He has been repeatedly transferred by various state governments in his home cadre of Haryana after he exposed corruption in the departments he was posted in.^[9][10]

Khemka was posted as Secretary to the Govt. of Haryana, Department of Archives and Archaeology on 4 April 2013.^[11] He was also given the charge of DG Archives and Archaeology on 26 April 2013.^[6] This is his 45th posting in his 20-year career excluding his 2 yr training period.^[6] In the previous month, he had exposed a deal that he thought to be untoward and had requested an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The government of Haryana refused this and Bhiwani-based NGO filed PIL on the same scam.On 18 October 2013, CBI has registered a preliminary enquiry into the alleged irregularities in the purchase of wheat seeds in HSDC seeking registration of a case against officials of National Cooperative Consumers Federation(NCCF) and National Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) for selling seeds at inflated prices to HSDC.^[12][13]

"And the transfer this time was quite humiliating. At 3:30 p.m, an officer of the rank of Under Secretary of the government, at least five levels below me, appeared with an order of the Principal Secretary of the Agriculture, appointing him as the MD of the Corporation and asked me to step down," Khemka told news channels.^[11]

Previously Ashok Khemka was Managing Director in Haryana Seeds Development Corporation.^[11]

Death threat

Khemka, who took on the state government over suspicious land deals between Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and real estate major DLF, has received fresh death threats. A complaint has been lodged with the Panchkula Police by HSDC chief manager K.R. Sharma. Earlier also, soon after he came out against Vadra-DLF land deals, Khemka had alleged that he was facing death threats from anonymous people.^[14]

Chargesheets filed against Ashok Khemka

Two chargesheets^[15][16] for Khemka have been filed, one of which accuses of failing his responsibilities at the Haryana Seed Development Corporation,^[17] where Khemka found corruption and requested for CBI inquiry. Further Khemka quoted that "I have reliably heard that 10 chargesheets will be filed against me on frivolous grounds along with 10 private complaints,".^[18]

Then Haryana government was pursuing extremely of its authority to penalise Mr. Khemka.^[19]

Posting detail

Khemka was posted in 46(not correct) departments and currently DG of Archives & Archaeology in Haryana state.^[20]

Highlighted Land Deal corruption

Khemka highlighted land deal corruption in Gurgaon and around for conversion of commercial land. As per the report there is corruption between ₹20,000 crore (US$3 billion) to ₹350,000 crore (US$52 billion).^[21] Khemka was most recently Haryana’s Director-General of Land Consolidation and Land Records-cum-Inspector-General of Registration. During his 80-day stint in the department, Khemka had detected serious irregularities in land transactions involving transfer of panchayat land worth several hundred crores of rupees to newly created real estate companies.^[22] Khemka was transferred on 11 October 2012 and he took action on the matter after his transfer. He claims he has been harassed and transferred 40 times in the last 21 years for merely doing his job.^[23] As the Managing Director of Haryana Seeds Development Corporation Limited, Khemka exposed its irregularities in just five months as its head following which he was transferred on 4 April 2013 and was replaced by B. S. Duggal, a Deputy Secretary five ranks below him.^[11]

Vadra Land Deal

The State Government constituted an Inquiry Committee of three senior IAS officers to nail Khemka on the cancellation of Vadra's land deal in village Sikhohpur (Gurgaon). Khemka responded to the report of the Inquiry Committee in his Comments to the State Government which is divided into 8 Chapters. The specific land deal of Robert Vadra is detailed in Chapter 6. Khemka's comments are a brilliant exposition of how crony capitalism works in India is sapping the moral fabric of the nation.^[24]

Rao Inderjit Singh, a member of the Lok Sabha from Gurgaon has said that a detailed inquiry must be conducted to "substantiate or refute" the charges against Robert Vadra, whose business deals with real estate major DLF have been questioned by Ashok Khemka. He said that Mr Vadra's land dealings should be part of larger investigation into alleged irregular practices in the governments appropriation and sale of nearly 1200 acres.^[25]

Awards

He was awarded the S R Jindal Prize in 2011 for "Crusade against Corruption" with a cash prize of Rs. 10 Lakhs along with Sanjiv Chaturvedi for his efforts in exposing corruption in high places. He also received the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust Commendation on Public Works in 2009^[6]

References

External links

• Official Twitter
• Ashok Khemka's Executive Record sheet
• Haryana Government
• Union Public Service Commission of India