Umashankar I.A.S, a victim of Crony Capitalism.

C.Umashankar IAS, an honest and efficient officer joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1990. He started his journey as an assistant collector in 1992 in Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam district in Tamil Nadu. He questioned irregularities in cyclone relief work taking place in the area and was promptly transferred to Seiyar, Thiruvannamalai district. This is indeed is part of the vicissitudes in the professional life of an honest official.

When Umashankar was an additional collector in Madurai between February 1995 and October 1995, he filed corruption cases against then AIADMK minister Selvaganapathy in the “cremation ground shed” case. Thanks to this he was transferred and appointed as an additional director of the South Asian Federation Games in October 1995. The 1996 assembly election in Tamil Nadu resulted in regime change in Tamil Nadu and the DMK formed the next government. In June 1996, Umashankar was appointed as the Joint Vigilance Commissioner. He recommended the DMK government to take action against the former chief minister Jayalalitha and former ministers in the AIADMK government who were connected to various corruption cases. The DMK was more interested in reaping political benefit rather than really trying the culprits. He was disappointed with the government's response and sought to be relieved from the position. Umashankar was appointed as district collector of Thiruvellur district in February 1999. During this period he implemented e-governance project in Thiruvellur and Thiruvellur is the first e-governance district in Tamilnadu. This project got an international attention. Umashankar in Tamil Nadu, Sonal Misra in Gujarat and Sanjay Saju in Andra Pradesh are pioneers in e-governance.

Umashankar groomed himself as an IT and e-governance specialist and he brought many important discussions in e-governance's platform. He strongly argued that developing countries like India should adopt Free Software in e-governance implementation and other government funded projects. In his speech in the National Conference on Free Software which was held in Bangalore on March 20&21, 2010 he reiterated the above points which inspired the audience and injected into them the national importance of using Free Software in government funded project and embracing open standards in such projects. He continued as Thiruvarur collector in June 2001. In 2001 assembly elections the ADMK was voted back to power and Umashankar was transferred as Commissioner of Disciplinary Proceedings to Selam. It was a sort of punishment post.

Between 2001 and 2006, when he was working as commissioner of Disciplinary Proceedings he sharply observed what is happening in IT and e-governance and made necessary contribution as well as intervention to his capacity. One incident is worth quoting now. On April 27 2005, Umashankar wrote an e-mail to Satyanarayan who was then the CEO of NISG(National Institute of Smart Government), the subject line is 'Mr. Satyanarayan are you corrupt?'. The allegation that Umashankar levelled against Satyanarayan was that when the latter was the principal secretary of Communication and IT,he granted many projects to one particular corporation (Price Water House Coopers). Umashankar alleged that there could be an unlawful connection between Satyanarayan and the particular corporation and asked him to reply in 7 days. Srivasta Krishna IAS replied to that by saying that it's unacceptable to level such allegation against an IAS by another fellow IAS officer. Then Srivasta Krishna was working in World Bank, Washington DC, USA in deputation. In the reply Srivasta Krishna mentioned another important information about Umashankar that when Umashankar worked as deputy collector in Trichy between July 1994 and January 1995, he deposited the money that was allocated for ( DRDA - District Rural Development Agency) in the bank where his younger brother was working. This reply looks like 'Are you Mr. Perfect?'. Umashankar replied to Srivasta that he did not deposit the money in the bank where his younger brother is working. He stated that his brother was working in Trichy SBI and the money is deposited in Chennai SBI and he added that he deposited the money in Chennai SBI since the bank offered more interest ie between 11.5% and 13%. This deposit allegation against Umashankar was taken in 2004 by the ADMK government. We have already seen the relation between the ADMK and Umashankar. In the same reply Umashankar mentioned that Srivasta was trying to divert the allegation against Satyanarayan by replying something else and he questioned that when the benefits of e-governance reaches widows, pensioners, the poor and socially marginalized scheduled caste and scheduled tribes? If corruption is tolerated in e-governance, the benefits of e-governance reaching such people will be further delayed.


In May 2006, the DMK came back to power in Tamil Nadu. Umashankar's fame and experience in IT helped him in being appointed as the MD of ELCOT (Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu). He burned his mid night oil in executing important tasks. He worked as a software engineer by extending working hours and sometimes stayed in office. He proved that the government can save between 10% and 20% money when it goes for Free Software such as GNU/Linux and Open Office instead of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. He not only recommended Free Software to the government employees but also organized the training for them in Free Software. Besides that he developed a model of an ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) which runs on Free Software coasts only 1.5 lakhs where the proprietary alternative costs between 6 and 7 lakhs. Umashankar introduced ORCA,a Free Software screen reader to the visually challenged people where the proprietary alternative is Rs.20,000/= and more. He organized a training class for such people by Krishnakant Mane, a visually challenged person working for TIFR( TATA Institute of Fundamental Research – Mumbai).

An honest officer and a government indulged in rampant corruption, contradiction starts here! Honesty is the most hated word for the bourgeois politicians. For probing financial irregularities of Thiagaraja S Chettiar while in ELCOT and for condemning and recommending actions against the Arasu cable for it's unlawful actions, Umashankar has been taken revenge by the capitalist-political nexus.

ELCOT is a government of Tamil Nadu enterprise before Umashankar has been appointed as an MD, New Era Technologies (NET) of Thiagaraja S Chettiar and ELCOT jointly started a company called ELNET Technologies Ltd (ETL). ELCOT and NET owned 26% and 24% stack respectively the rest owned by the public. In 2004 ETL started a company called ETL Infrastructure. ETL Infrastructure is an 100% subsidiary company of ETL. Thiagaraja S Chettiar and his wife Unnamalai Thiagaraja were the chairman and the MD of ETL Infrastructure respectively. ETL Infrastructure availed a huge sum of loan by showing the ETL property. ETL Infrastructure owned 1,800,000 square feet land at Pallikarunai worth Rs.700 Cr. Umashankar wondered how ETL lost the control over a company, which started with the fund of ETL and availing huge loan in ETL's name. On July 28 2008, he went to ETL Infrastructure office at Tharamani in searching the documents related to ETL and ETL Infrastructure and retuned without success. As per regulations the MD of ELCOT would be the Chairman of ETL. Umashankar as the Chairman of ETL circulated a special resolution through ETL company secretary in ETL's Annual General Body Meeting on 30th July 2008, to remove Unnamalai Thiagarajan from the MD post. Thanks to that Umashankar was removed from ELCOT by the Tamil Nadu government.

Umashankar was appointed as an MD of Arasu cable on October 30 2008. He condemned the Sumangali Cable Vision's(SCV – a part of Sun Network) unlawful actions against the Arasu cable. In December 2008, He wrote a detailed letter to the office of Tamilnadu Chief minister and the Inspector General of Tamilnadu about Sumangali cable unlawful action and the dying necessary to take action against Sumangali TV. It's alleged that to interrupt Arasu cable telecasting, the cables of Arasu cable were cut by unidentified persons all over the state as per Sumangali's direction. It completely paralyzed the Arasu cable's telecasting. On January 7, 2009, Umashankar wrote to Karunanidhi that the only way to save Arasu cable is to nationalize the Sumangali cable. In order to divert this issue the Tamilnadu government gave a memo to Umashankar which alleged that Umashankar misused his power by granting some benefits to a company called Tessolve through his wife who was then working for Tessolve. Umashankar refuted this allegation with proper explanation. He said that 2.5 acre land allotted to Tessolve in Madurai IT park has been allotted to the company after the cabinet approval on September 28 2008. In October 2008, when Tessolve approached the TIIC (Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation) for a loan, he rightly intimated the government about his wife's employment with the concerned company and the loan was rejected . Such politically motivated actions against Umashankar had an adverse impact on his promotions. He was transferred as Commissioner of Small Savings on January 23 2009.

On May 6, 2010, Karunanidhi government started an inquiry against Umashankar without filling any case. On June 6, 2010, Umashankar filed an affidavit in Madras high court under the article 226 of constitution of India, challenging the enquiry. In the affidavit he mentioned that it's unconstitutional to enquire an IAS by an officer in the rank of DSP without registering a case. The court's judgement came in favour of Umashankar on June 16, 2010.

We've to wait and see the cases that will be filled against Umashankar and to see how the corrupted politician and the business class in forming an unholy alliance and the public and media's on this issue.

Karunanidhi is known for playing caste cards on sensitive issues. In 1999 Karunanidhi rejected action against the district collector and the police commissioner and other officials connected with Tirunelveli massacre in which 17 people were killed( and 11 of them were Dalits) by stating shamelessly that if the government take action against the officials “people belonging to the backward classes” would object to it. In 2010, Karunanidhi is taking action against an IAS officer by alleging that he produced fake community certificate. Many know that Umashankar was a Hindu when he was selected to the Indian Administrative Service and a few know that he embraced Christianity later. Every citizen has a right to practice the religion he/she likes and to change that as they wish. The problem for Karunanidhi is not that Umashankar produced fake community certificate, the real problem for Karunanidhi is that Umashankar may unearth many fraudulences in ELCOT and other areas which may unearth nexus between the bourgeoisie politicians and the business men.