IAS N Prashanth is a Kerala cadre officer who has been variously known as ‘Collector Bro.’ He was suspended on disciplinary grounds for speaking against a senior official in public. The 2007-batch officer, with over 300,000 followers on Facebook and 50,000 on Instagram, first stirred a political hornet’s nest due to his active social networking sites, which he says are very useful platforms for public interaction.
Ironically, it was his tirade against Additional Chief Secretary A. Jayathilak that saw him get in trouble. Prashanth branded Jayathilak as a “psychopath” who got baseless media reports planted against him. Ever since the government got after his scalp, he has been referring to himself as a “whistleblower,” saying being an IAS officer was not his be-all and end-all.
From Thalassery in Kannur district of Kerala, Prashanth went to Loyola School, Thiruvananthapuram, and Government Law College before joining IAS. The ‘Collector Bro’ nickname came up when he became Kozhikode district collector in 2015, for his innovative interactions on social media and community building. At one instance, he called for volunteers to clean a lake, promising them a plate of Malabar biryani.
The latest outburst was provoked by a media report that files pertaining to ‘Unnathi’ Scheme meant to benefit Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes had gone missing during his tenure. He denied the allegations and alleged Jayathilak had planted false news.
The decision to suspend him was taken amid growing political hostility between the two fronts as CPM leader J Mercykutty Amma alleged a conspiracy against her involving Prashanth, further muddling the Kerala political landscape. Government officers are embroiled in conflicts under the Left regime, the Congress-led UDF has remarked.
