UP babus use UGC row to ensure personal gains

Two bureaucrats are trying to make the most of the controversy.

- SHIKHA SALARIA

State bureaucracy has emerged as the latest arena for the Centre versus State tussle rumoured to be unfolding in Uttar Pradesh, with bureaucrats openly taking political sides.

While a senior PCS officer resigned from his post alleging that the general category had been implicitly "declared criminal" under the new UGC guidelines, also citing the alleged mistreatment of Batuk Brahmins of the Jyotish Peeth during the Prayagraj Magh Mela, a GST deputy commissioner from Ayodhya resigned "in support of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath."

PCS officer Alankar Agnihotri is claiming to have become the symbol of Brahmin resistance and is making inflammatory remarks on the Centre.

Speaking to journalists in his hometown Kanpur on Saturday, former Bareilly city magistrate Agnihotri—who was suspended by the UP appointments department late Monday night and now faces an inquiry initiated by the Bareilly divisional commissioner—made a sharp U-turn and trained his guns at the Central government.

He claimed that the UGC regulations were brought with the 2027 Assembly elections in mind, alleging that the Central government is at loggerheads with the state government and with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

"The UGC regulations that were published in the gazette on January 13 were brought by the Government of India and had a clause which considered the general category as 'declared criminal' under a well-thought-out and planned conspiracy. These UGC regulations were brought keeping in mind the 2027 Assembly elections because the central government is fighting with the state government and a fight is also going on with the honourable Chief Minister. However, CM Yogi is the CM of the state and belongs to us," he said.