By Ashraf Padanna/Thiruvananthapuram
A year after he was handpicked by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to advise him on economic affairs and help him successfully conduct the global investors’ meet, Shaffi Mather has stepped down, humiliated and facing charges of corruption.
Mather put in his papers on July 14 after his younger brother Raffi lodged a complaint with the chief minister that the former was misusing his office for personal gains.
Chandy accepted Shaffi’s resignation four days later.
The opposition and a section of media campaigning for Chandy’s resignation over the ‘solar scam’ - in which a couple cheated the public by pretending to be close to the chief minister and his cabinet ministers - were quick to link Shaffi’s resignation to the investment fraud under a fake company, Team Solar.
To Chandy’s further embarrassment, the government’s chief whip, P C George, a member of the third largest coalition partner who wants his leader to replace Chandy, alleged that Shaffi had siphoned off Rs7.35mn on account of travel and other allowances. George claimed Shaffi had been “looting the exchequer” even as he was drawing a symbolic Rs1 monthly salary.
“Shaffi received over Rs 200,000 during his entire tenure for travelling within the country. He never claimed any money for travels abroad,” Chandy stressed.
The 43-year-old was part of Chandy’s core team of experts – consisting of the likes of former cabinet secretary K M Chandrashekharan, former chief mentor of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Tarun Das, ‘metro man’ E Sreedharan and Sam Petroda, architect of India’s telecom revolution - advising him on various projects.
“Thanks to his efforts, the World Economic Forum’s India summit is going to be held in Kochi in November, for the first time in south India. This is its second summit outside New Delhi in the past 26 years,” added Chandy, who is also close to Mather’s family since his student days like A K Antony and Vayalar Ravi, the senior federal ministers.
Shaffi is a Mason Fellow in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He graduated with a Master in Public Administration degree (MPA) in 2008. Shaffi was educated at the University of Pittsburgh USA (MBA - Strategic Policy), University of Bridgeport USA (MBA - Finance) and the London School of Economics, UK, where he was a Chevening Senior Scholar and a visiting lecturer.
He also got his bachelors in law from the School of Legal Studies, Cochin University of Science & Technology where he is currently a PhD research scholar at the department of applied economics. He is a practicing lawyer in the Supreme Court with interest in public affairs. He worked with his family business and in the field of social enterprises in healthcare, education and farming.
He also has experience of having worked in the corporate sector in Mumbai in senior management roles.
A member of the Bureau of Indian Standards of the government of India and of its national level consumer policy advisory committee, he is part of the new generation of young leaders of the Congress party focussing on policy matters.
Since 2010, Shaffi has been the convener of the party’s economic planning and policy committee in Kerala. He was actively involved in the preparation of the ruling coalition’s election manifesto.