Ashish Joshi, the man who took on the AAP establishment, is no darling of the NDA regime either

In the first week of March this year, Ashish Joshi, the officer whose complaint against Rajendra Kumar, Principal Secretary to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, led to the CBI raids at various locations, including Delhi government’s secretariat, was persuaded by Ashish Khetan to take up the job of member-secretary of Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC). Khetan knew Joshi for quite some time. When he was still a journalist, Joshi was a director in the ministry of minority affairs at the Centre. But despite that kind of acquaintance, Joshi was given the marching orders by the AAP government within 30 days of taking up the Delhi Dialogue assignment. He was removed from the post in late March and Khetan, vice-president of the commission, was the one who first gave him the marching order orally. Joshi asked for a written order to this effect since a movement of this nature or shunting out in the government can take place only on files, not by oral orders. [caption id=“attachment_2548956” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Ashish Joshi. Image courtesy/Firstpost[/caption] Few minutes after Khetan had hung up, Rajendra Kumar, Principal Secretary to the chief minister, the officer at the centre of current storm, called him up to repeat the marching orders. He was asked to relinquish his charge as member-secretary of Dialogue Commission and report to Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board. Joshi in any case was continuing there as member, Finance, since June 2014. He was holding an additional post in this commission. A fortnight later, in mid-April, an office rider landed at Joshi’s residence with a letter. That letter shocked Joshi. He was suddenly repatriated to his parent cadre – P&T Accounts and Finance Service. No questions were to be asked, nor was any explanation given. Joshi official car was ordered to be moved to the garage. It didn’t matter that he had still not relinquished charge to report to the central government department. The question is why an officer who till a month ago was considered so efficient and energetic was being hounded out by those who vouched for probity and transparency. Joshi’s only fault was that he was or is not pliable. He speaks his mind on the file and at times at places where he is designated to speak. Ashish was the only government servant at DDC, thus all appointments had to be routed through him or he had to do it. His rift with Khetan and AA P developed once he prepared guidelines for selecting coordinators and facilitators for DDC, put it up on the website and invited applications. Pressure started mounting on him thereafter. He was asked to straightaway appoint six AAP volunteers to these posts, which he refused saying he had already issued guidelines and applications were pouring in. Joshi was then told to make these appointments honorary, to which Joshi again referred to guidelines for honorary positions. While all this was going on, one day senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh landed at his office with few volunteers and misbehaved with him. There was some sermonising on the AAP’s thought process on work. Subsequent to that Joshi wrote a long letter to the chief secretary detailing the AAP leader’s misbehavior and the pressure on him for appointment of volunteers. He requested the latter to apprise the chief minister of the matter. This was not acceptable to AAP’s ruling dispensation and he got the marching orders. As member, Finance and Chief Digitisation officer at Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board, he had come in official contact with Rajendra Kumar. He had turned the board into a paperless e-office. During course of his work he would often hear about misdeeds of Kumar’s action as IT secretary. There were many who were impressed by Joshi’s work and felt cheated and humiliated by his unceremonious removal. They gave him loads of documents against Kumar, the most reliable ones of which formed part of his complaint against Kumar to Anti-Corruption Bureau and to the CBI. As a young officer in P&T department, Joshi had cut telephone lines of AICC on account of non-payment. This included a number which was installed at Sonia Gandhi’s office. Socialites like Veena Ramani too had their phone lines disconnected. He was transferred from his post but when the news of his transfer became public, the then telecom minister Sushma Swaraj cancelled his transfer order. In the ministry of minority affairs he came in conflict with his political boss, AR Antulay because the minister wanted him to appoint one of his favourites in Maulana Azad Research Foundation without following norms. Again Joshi refused to bow. But an upright officer is no darling of Modi government either. After Joshi was abruptly shunted out by Delhi government, Union communications and IT ministry asked him to report in Ranchi. It was too much for a mild- mannered officer to bear. He had taken three year deputation to Delhi government because his daughter was in class 10. He kept representing between April and September to the ministry that he be placed in Delhi and he couldn’t afford to be posted in Ranchi. Finally, in September he got the option of posting in Dehradun, which he accepted.