Kerala IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman was arrested on Saturday for killing a journalist, K.M Basheer, in a road accident. The IAS officer was allegedly drunk while driving the car, lost control over it and hit Basheer’s two-wheeler yesterday. Venkataraman, as a sub-collector in Devikulam, had become the apple of the eye of Kerala’s conscience, by initiating strong action against illegal constructions and land mafia centered around Munnar.
His efforts at Munnar had made him a ”pain’ for a few left leaders like M.M Mani and when he is eventually left to a predicament like this, many supporters and leaders of the left have come back to vent their frustration against Sriram. From glorifying M.M Mani’s old statements about Sriram to dubbing his current plight as God’s revenge(for removing an iron cross on an encroached land from Pappathichola), people have resorted to a number of theories, but what is particularly disturbing is the attempts to justify the horrible episodes of fraud in University exams(possibly PSC exams as well) by the SFI leaders.
Kerala was recently shocked by the level of fraud which has crept into university exams as plain answer sheets and the college seal was found in the house of the main accused in the Thiruvananthapuram University College stabbing case. What was more disturbing was the fact that the main accused had scored top rank in PSC exams, giving rise to speculations about possible cheating in PSC exams as well.
The Left and PSC have largely been in denial mode, telling the aspirants that it is “impossible for such cheating to take place in a ‘foolproof’ system like that of PSC”. One of the main defense raised by them was “Just because a man is involved in a criminal case, doesn’t mean he can’t score good marks in PSC”. Kerala public was not convinced by that explanation though. But now with the Sriram Venkataraman’s drunk driving, there are many voices comparing the two incidents.
They claim that if an IAS rank holder can get himself into criminal activities, the same logic would apply for SFI activists like Sivaranjith as well. Here are some of the Facebook posts seen sprouting in many places of social media. Although Kerala PSC or SFI activists under investigation are not explicitly mentioned in these posts, it is obvious what they are hinting at.
While the public has no doubt regarding the academic achievements of Sriram, these supporters peddle the vicious theory of criminals like Sivaranjith being a similar case of great students involved in crime!
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