Minister in nepotism row must go, says Kerala’s UDF

Kerala’s Congress Party-led opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) yesterday stepped up the heat on a minister accused of nepotism to resign.The opposition says Higher Education Minister K T Jaleel appointed his cousin K T Adeeb as the general manager of a state-run aid agency for minorities disregarding merit.He appointed Adeeb, a bank officer, at the Kerala State Minorities Development Finance Corporation overlooking five other applicants.Strangely, the opposition says, Adeeb lacked the required qualifications for the plum post and had not even attended the interview “which is a clear case of nepotism”.“He has violated the oath of office, so the chief minister (Pinarayi Vijayan) should sack him,” said Ramesh Chennithala, the leader of the opposition in the state assembly.“He is a culprit under the Anti-Corruption Act 1988. He had admitted on Facebook that he invited his relative and gifted him the job as he found him a suitable candidate.”Chennithala said the minister relaxed the qualification criteria to accommodate his cousin.While a 2013 order says the general manager requires a masters in business management or equivalent besides a bachelor’s degree, in 2016, the minister eased it to a postgraduate diploma for his cousin.“Is this the way you find qualified hands for government jobs,” Chennithala asked at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram yesterday.“Moreover, he did not get the mandatory Vigilance (the anti-corruption police) clearance required for such postings.”The Muslim Youth League (MYL), which flagged the issue, is now on a campaign seeking the minister’s resignation, waving black flags at him in several places.The youth wing of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) is now planning to take Jaleel to court as he has refused to quit saying he did nothing wrong and it was a norm there.Jaleel, an independent legislator, supported by the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), was a former general secretary of the Muslim Youth League.The MYL released documents showing the qualifications of other applicants including a regional manager of a public sector bank and an undersecretary of the finance department.“He (Jaleel) said none other than Adeeb had the required qualifications. He was lying. He had made some 60 similar postings,” said P K Firos, general secretary of the MYL.“We complained to the Vigilance, but they did nothing. So we decided to move the Kerala High Court against the minister.”They cite a series of violations by the minister including the requirement of an expert committee clearance for such top-level appointments.Industries Minister E P Jayarajan had to resign in 2016, after barely five months in office, for appointing his nephew as head of a public sector enterprise, following which the government announced strict rules to ensure merit.He quietly returned as a minister armed with a Vigilance clearance recently when the authorities were busy rebuilding the state after the worst floods in a century.Jayarajan, the de facto No 2 in the cabinet, was the second tainted minister to return after P P Saseendran who was trapped in a telephone sleaze talk by a woman journalist.“What Jaleel did was a more serious crime of nepotism than Jayarajan as the government had brought in stricter norms since,” said Chennithala.“He made the appointment violating the decision of his cabinet. He has no right to continue in office, and his arguments are boomeranging on him.”