Akhilesh's ego drove him to suspend Durga Shakti Nagpal: BJP

Lucknow: The BJP on Tuesday criticised the “ego-driven” Akhilesh Yadav for first suspending IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal, then reinstating her, making her apologise to the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, and using the state PR machinery to publicise it. BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak alleged the government’s public relations wing was used to inform media persons that the suspended official had apologised for her behaviour. “What transpired between Nagpal and the chief minister was something known to them only, but the state’s PR wing was used to humiliate the lady officer by saying that she had apologised,” he told IANS. [caption id=“attachment_1130277” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Akhilesh Yadav. AFP.[/caption] The BJP leader also said that if it was just a matter of Durga Shakti Nagpal saying “sorry” to the chief minister, then why was the lady officer mentally traumatised for 56 days, post her suspension July 27. Within 24 hours of her meeting the CM, her suspension was revoked and a day later, the departmental probe against her was also wrapped up. It shows she had done no wrong and the suspension was “purely a political consequence of her actions against the high ’n’ mighty of the ruling party”, the spokesman said. Samajwadi Party (SP) general secretary Ram Asrey Kushwaha said Monday that the issue would have been settled much before, had Nagpal apologised earlier. “Is it not a proof of the ego-driven chief minister waiting to humiliate an upright official?” Pathak asked. If Durga Shakti Nagpal had done some administrative wrong, as she was accused of earlier, why was she reinstated without waiting for the probe report against her? he asked. Nagpal was suspended July 27, as sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Sadar in Gautambudh Nagar district for her alleged orders to raze the boundary wall of an unauthorised under-construction mosque. The suspension of Nagpal hit national headlines and even Congress president Sonia Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to ensure that the officer was not treated unfairly. IANS