Durga Nagpal suspension: Akhilesh's popularity takes a beating

He tactfully let loose his ministers on the IAS officer and they did their job well. While Urban Development Minister Azam Khan called her an "over-rated but ordinary official who deserved harsher punishment," the PWD minister and chief minister's uncle, Shivpal Yadav, asked the state bureaucracy to stop the ranting or face action. The usually sober and suave health minister, former IPS officer Ahmad Hasan, too joined the anti-Nagpal voices and cast aspersions on the 28-year-old Nagpal, even dragging her family into the mess.



Calling her a liar and an immature officer, Hasan gave the entire issue a communal colour by pointing out that Nagpal was out to disrupt the communal harmony in the state, which already was on the edge. Political observers feel the communal angle is being played out by the SP leaders for garnering minority votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, in which the state is set to be in the throes of an unprecedented communal polarization.

"We see this whole issue as an opportunity. Our leaders have a good image among the Muslims and now we are being seen as the saviours of a mosque," an SP leader chuckled.

Party spokesman and state Prisons Minister Rajendra Chowdhary also justified the suspension, saying Nagpal's action could have triggered communal strife in the region. Uttar Pradesh, as it is, has seen 34 communal riots and flare ups in the last 17 months of SP rule.

It was the tough posturing of the state government that forced the UP IAS Association to beat a hasty retreat after initial bravado where they petitioned the chief secretary, called Nagpal's suspension "unfair" and urged a rethink. Once Akhilesh Yadav reminded them of the Mayawati days when they were all gagged by her diktats and were humiliated, the IAS Association thought it prudent not to take the issue any further.