Former Andhra Pradesh chief secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao was sacked as chairperson of the State Brahmin Welfare Corporation for his alleged anti-government posts on social media. The decision came after Rao met Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in Amaravati to offer an explanation for his controversial posts.
Rao, a 1979 batch IAS officer, retired last year as the first chief secretary of the residual Andhra Pradesh after the bifurcation of the state and was later appointed chairperson of the AP Brahmin Welfare Corporation constituted by the Naidu government to help poor Brahmin families. He has been active on the social media but his Facebook posts have, of late, created ripples in political circles.
Rao was removed from his post after several TDP leaders complained to the chief minister that the former officer had been insulting the government on social media.
The chief minister seemed upset when Rao questioned the government’s decision to grant entertainment tax exemption to the Telugu film “Gautami Putra Satakarni” in which Naidu’s brother-in-law and TDP legislator N. Balakrishna played the lead character.
Rao was also critical of the Naidu government for arresting and filing cases against social media activist Inturi Ravi Kiran, who allegedly posted satirical cartoons against the chief minister and his son Nara Lokesh.
Rao shared the comments and counter-postings of some of his friends on Facebook, attacking Naidu.
There were also allegations that Rao was hobnobbing with the opposition YSR Congress Party leaders and that the benefits of various welfare schemes being implemented by the Brahmin Welfare Corporation were not reaching the deserved.
Rao, however, was not apologetic about his social media activity and said, “I don’t find anything wrong in my comments or sharing of some posts. It is my fundamental duty to express my views and they have nothing to do with my functioning as the chairman of Brahmin Welfare Corporation.”
He also ruled out allegations that he had benefited some people from the YSR Congress Party, saying that he strictly went by the merits of the applicants in extending benefits under the Corporation and not by their political affiliations.
“If the chief minister thought I should have behaved like a TDP nominee, I am sorry, I would never do that and would never become one,” he said.
