As the controversy over RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat unfurling the tricolour at a school in Palakkad escalates, the state government has transferred the district collector who had issued directions to restrain him from doing so.
Palakkad district collector P Marykutty was transferred and appointed as Panchayat director.
The decision was taken in the cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The cabinet also decided to shuffle some other bureaucrats. The government says that five Collectors have been transferred and it was just routine. District collectors of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Palakkad, Kottayam and Alappuzha have been transferred.
Vasuki who was director of Kerala Suchitwa Mission has been appointed as district Collector Thiruvananthapuram. Dr S Karthikeyan has been appointed as district Collector Kollam. Marketfed Managing Director P Suresh Babu has been appointed as Palakkad district collector.
However, the decision to transfer Marykutty has attracted criticism from various quarters. Youth MLA of the Congress VT Balram, who is active on social media platforms said that with the transfer, the Pinarayi Vijayan government has declared beyond doubt where its loyalty lies.
In a Facebook post, Balram, representing Thrithala constituency in Palakkad, ridiculed that only Vijayan is there in the whole world to lead the agitations against fascism. "The government is with the RSS," it says.
Marykutty had issued a directive restraining Bhagwat from hoisting the flag at the school citing that only an elected representative or the school principal can do it in a government-aided school. Later, she directed to file a case against Karnaki Amman school management for going ahead with the decision to unfurl the flag.
However the RSS held the view that Bhagwat was invited by the school management to take part in the Golden Jubilee and Independence Day celebrations of the school.
CPI (M) Palakkad district committee has asked the government to book Bhagwat while BJP district president Krishnadas E filed a complaint with the Prime Minister’s Office seeking action against the district collector.