File photo of Akhilesh Yadav.
An acutely embarrassed Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh has suspended a top bureaucrat over a controversial letter that called for a meeting to discuss the "reconstruction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya on lines of Somnath Temple."
The state government had on Saturday transferred senior IAS officer, Home Secretary Sarvesh Chandra Mishra, and explained that what it calls a poorly-worded letter was a clerical error. Mr Mishra, a 1997-batch officer, has not only been suspended for failing to spot that error as he signed the letter, but will also face a departmental inquiry.
"Secretary (Home) Mishra mentioned a wrong and extremely misleading subject on a disputed issue in the letter regarding a meeting to be chaired by the Principal Secretary (Home) on October 14, and signed it," an official statement said, admitting that the letter created confusion and "gave a completely wrong message" to people.
"I do not understand how can bureaucrats and officials write such letter without the notice of the Chief Minister? Uttar Pradesh is already facing communal polarization," CPI leader D Raja said.
Mr Mishra's boss, Principal Secretary (Home) RM Srivastava, had to apologise for the "error" and take responsibility for the folly of "junior level" officials. "The language used in the letter is not correct," he told reporters. A section officer in the home department, Prem Kumar Pandey, has also been suspended.
The meeting was intended to review law and order preparedness for a yatra planned by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh and the BJP, this week.
The UP government is said to be contemplating banning the yatra; in August, its ban on another VHP yatra had brought the Akhilesh Yadav government in direct confrontation with the right wing organization. Mr Yadav had used massive security deployment and large scale preventive arrests to ensure that the yatra was a non-starter.
The VHP plans to begin its yatra on October 18 in lakhs of villages across the country. It is demanding that the Indian parliament facilitate the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed Ramjanmbhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya.
A day later, on October 19, Narendra Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections, will hold a rally in Kanpur, his first in Uttar Pradesh.