What will Ashok Khemka find next?

Ashok Khemka, the senior IAS officer famous for having exposed numerous instances of government corruption, perhaps most prominently the DLF land-grab scam, has been transferred again. This time, he had voiced concerns over the Haryana government’s plans to ‘develop’ the Aravalli hills through what it called ‘consolidation projects’. That is just a sanitised way to say “destroy the local ecosystem and build things”.

According to the Indian Express, the government had his transfer order ready in a few hours. It was his sixth since 2014, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assumed power at the Centre, and 52nd in his 27 years of service. It is clear that the multiple transfers haven’t fazed him and that he has remained true to his beliefs at every station (although one can’t claim to know or fully understand the effect of these transfers on his personal life).