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Jharkhand Governor on his way out
By Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, JAN. 28. The Governor of Jharkhand, Prabhat Kumar, is likely to leave the Ranchi Raj Bhavan on January 31, consequent to allegations that he accepted the hospitality of a tainted businessman when he was the Cabinet Secretary. Mr. Kumar has already put in his papers but has been permitted to stay till the end of this month. His last gubernatorial act was to unfurl the national flag on the Republic Day.
This script of ``honourable exit'' for Mr. Kumar has been written after considerable discussion at the highest level of Government. As a matter of fact, he should have been shown the door as soon as the allegations against him surfaced. And for a while it looked as if Mr. Kumar would be able to exploit the differences in perception between the Home Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office.
The allegations against Mr. Kumar were damning enough. The entire bureaucracy was aghast that a man who occupied the highest administrative post in the country allowed himself to be so compromised for petty expenses. The inclination was to make an example of Mr. Kumar. However, it is understood that his letter of resignation cites ``personal reasons`` for leaving the Raj Bhavan.
The crux of the allegations against Mr. Kumar is his relationship with the controversial Ashok Chaturvedi of Flex Industries. Mr. Chaturvedi stands accused of bribing officials; and, during the course of his investigation, he is believed to have mentioned the name of Mr. Prabhat Kumar, as also other senior officials, as one of his ``friends''.
There was prima facie evidence against Mr. Kumar, but as long as he occupied a gubernatorial position it would have been embarrassing for any investigator to question him. Hence the pressure on the Vajpayee Government to seek his resignation. Had any soft corner been shown to Mr. Kumar, the entire investigation into the Flex Industries business would have collapsed. This is a political embarrassment the Centre was unwilling to risk, notwithstanding the services rendered in the past.
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