Hearing scheduled today; Prashant with another provocation against Chief Secretary

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former Agriculture Department Special Secretary N Prashanth, who was supposed to appear in person for a hearing today regarding the withdrawal of his suspension, has come out against the Chief Secretary. Prashanth was angered by the government's rejection of his demand to record the hearing on video and conduct live streaming. Prashanth wrote on social media yesterday that the Chief Secretary, who agreed to all this, later retracted and that it was strange.

Prashanth was suspended last November for making defamatory criticism against Additional Chief Secretary Dr. A. Jayathilak. The suspension was extended for not giving a clear reply to the show cause notice. The Chief Secretary had also recommended disciplinary action. However, the Chief Minister had suggested that Prashanth be heard directly and that the issues be resolved. Based on that, a hearing has been scheduled at 4:30 pm today.

Seven Strange Nights

The full text of the note shared by Prashant on Facebook under the title Seven Strange Nights:

'In the letter dated 10.02.2025, I had only requested to record and stream the hearing. This request was fully accepted on 04.04.2025, but it was withdrawn on 11.04.2025. The letter did not state any reasons for the change in decision after seven nights. It does not say that the request is strange but the palace correspondents say that the request is strange. In the era of RTI and transparency, how is this strange? I just want to know. The person has no name? I came to know about my disciplinary action by reading the documents, copies of the order, decisions and opinions in the channel and the newspaper. I saw some channel employees acting as if they had not seen the first order allowing streaming. What can you say about the constant fearlessness in reporting unsourced news and suppressing documents? Strange.