Govt acts in vengeance? Ex-official’s pension cut by Rs 500 for criticising ministers on social media

Ottapalam: In a telling act of authoritarianism, the State Government has permanently slashed the pension of a retired government official, accusing him of criticising former speaker P Sreeramakrishnan and former Electricity Minister M M Mani on social media.

The punitive action has been initiated against V P Muhammadali, who retired from service as a Personal Assistant to the Ottapalam District Education Officer. Besides the permanent cut of Rs 500, he is also yet to get his retirement benefits.

Muhammadali had raised criticisms against the minister as well as the then speaker Sreeramakrishnan through social media in 2018 while serving as a Senior Superintendent at the Pattambi sub-district education office. Following this, a court imposed a fine of Rs 3000 on him while considering the case booked by Pattambi police. A departmental inquiry by the Director of Public Education, too, found the statement, posted on social media by a serving government official, as inappropriate. The probe, at the same time, also found the statement as not very serious. Based on these findings, the authorities had made a temporary decision to cut Rs 500 from his monthly pension.

Following this, Muhammadali approached the government, citing that the mistake on his part had occurred out of ignorance. He urged the authorities to release all the benefits due to him. The government, though, has now decided to perpetuate it all of a sudden. Service experts point out that while the government often resorts to blocking retirement benefits for lapses committed while in service, instances of making a permanent cut in the pension are rare.

Punitive action for social media posts against Mani, former Speaker
The primary offence against Muhammadali pertains to his social media post against the controversial “one...two... three” speech on political killings made by M M Mani earlier. The second allegation was raised in connection with the criticism raised against the attempts to reason out the purchase of spectacles worth Rs 49,900 by then-speaker Sreeramakrishnan. When the speaker’s act had triggered a row, some left-wing cyber handles launched a fierce counterattack by stating that ministers in the previous UDF cabinet too did the same. Muhammadali, on his part, criticised this move.

Following the controversy, Muhammadali later deleted both of these posts. Incidentally, Muhammadali was a member of the Kerala Gazetted Officers Association- a left-backed organization