Thiruvananthapuram: While the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has been organising programmes nationwide to celebrate its centenary, one event in Kerala this week garnered special attention—not for its grandeur, but due to the presence of former director general of police, Jacob Thomas. On Wednesday, Thomas attended a celebratory event near Kochi, donning the traditional Sangh uniform, and said in his speech that the organisation does not discriminate on the basis of caste or religion, and works towards nation-building.
Retired in 2020 after an acrimonious relationship with the state’s Left government, Thomas had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2021, and had even unsuccessfully contested the assembly elections that year from a constituency in Thrissur. Having maintained a low profile so far, he has now announced plans to become a full-time Sangh pracharak.
Thomas is one of the three Indian Police Service ex-officers in the state to be involved with the BJP in recent years, besides R. Sreelekha who had joined last year, and T.P. Senkumar, who had entered in 2017, post their retirements. All three share a similar story in terms of their respective tenures as officers—tussles with the state government.
This also assumes significance as the BJP tries to expand its base in the poll-bound state, where its impact has so far been limited to the lone victories of Suresh Gopi in the 2024 Lok Sabha election in Thrissur, and O. Rajagopal in the 2016 assembly poll in Nemom constituency, besides few local elections.
Joseph C. Mathew, a political analyst based in Kerala, told ThePrint that while involvement of retired civil servants may not directly improve the BJP’s position in the state, it can alter the perceptions surrounding the party.
“The people are being pushed to the other side, not just by the Left, but by the Congress too. They are leaving because they want patronage. I don’t think they are innate supporters of the BJP,” he said, adding that the BJP seems to be looking only at numbers, which will not help it on the ground. “But numbers alone don’t matter. They need to reflect on the ground, too. Other than Suresh Gopi, I don’t think they’ve had a prized catch yet in Kerala.”
A retired civil servant told ThePrint that it is not wrong for officers to join politics after retirement. “It’s a personal choice. For these three individuals, maybe it was only the BJP that approached them. It’s difficult to enter the Congress and secure a position, since many leaders are already vying for posts. The Left, like the BJP, usually accommodates Independents. But all three have had issues with the Left,” the former officer said, adding that the nature of a civil servant’s work is very different from that of politicians, and may not have much impact on the public.
Thomas himself told ThePrint that his association with the RSS had begun long before his retirement. “My association with the Sangh is several years old. The first time I came across the organisation and was attracted to it was in 1997, when I was still in service. So, I wasn’t visibly involved in the activities. But for the last seven to eight years, I have been more active.”
Thomas added that the RSS attracted him because of its discipline, values and selfless nature of work. He decided to be more actively involved after the organisation approached him to take part in its centenary programmes.
Friction with the Left
Often considered a straightforward officer, Thomas’s first clash with the Kerala government had come in 2015 under the Oommen Chandy-led United Democratic Front regime, when he was removed as director of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB). This had followed his probe in a bar bribery case, allegedly involving former finance minister and Kerala Congress (M) leader K.M. Mani, a long-time ally of the UDF.
When the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front came to power in 2016, Thomas was reinstated as vigilance director, and he had even praised the government’s anti-corruption stance. But by late 2017, the officer had become a vocal critic of the government after releasing his autobiography Sravukalkkoppam Neenthumbol (Swimming with Sharks), which contained sharp criticism of its governance, and attacks on leaders of both the Left and Congress, including former chief minister Oommen Chandy. His continued criticism of the state government’s policies had led to his suspension.
Soon after retirement in 2020, Thomas joined the BJP in 2021 in the presence of party president J.P. Nadda. In the assembly polls that year, he finished third in Thrissur’s Irinjalakuda. However, with 22.12 percent votes, he increased the party’s vote share in the constituency by nearly two percentage points compared to 2016. The winning CPI(M) candidate had secured 40.27 percent.
Like Thomas, T.P. Senkumar too had a strained relationship with the LDF, a tussle that had even reached the Supreme Court. The officer, who had probed several high-profile cases, including the 2012 murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader T.P. Chandrasekharan that involved CPI(M) workers, was removed as DGP, just days after the LDF had come to power in 2016. He had then approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which had ruled in the government’s favour, but the Supreme Court had later ordered his reinstatement.
Similarly, R. Sreelekha, Kerala’s first woman IPS officer, had also alleged that she was sidelined and her career undermined, both before and after retirement. A 1987-batch officer, she joined the BJP in October 2024 in the presence of state party president K. Surendran. In July this year, she was appointed a vice-president of the party. She also runs her own YouTube channel, Sasneham Sreelekha, where she shares political and personal views, critiquing the ruling Left and Congress.
Dr Renu Suresh, BJP’s general secretary, told ThePrint that bureaucrats are getting attracted towards the party as they see it as a viable alternative for the state’s development. “If they want to serve the nation, they know BJP is the choice. We all work for political power. We have power at the Centre, and everyone knows we can achieve it in Kerala, too,” she said.
However, both the CPI(M) and Congress dismissed the bureaucrats’ entry into the BJP as “self-serving”.
“Many bureaucrats are showing allegiance to the Right these days. It can only be seen as an attempt to benefit from the party in power at the Centre. It has little to do with ideology or politics,” a senior CPI(M) leader told ThePrint.
Congress spokesperson Sandeep Varrier said that the retired officers’ entry into the BJP may not yield political benefits to the party itself. “In 2021, Thomas’s candidature didn’t help the BJP at all. Even in Tamil Nadu, Annamalai’s leadership ended disastrously and ruined BJP’s alliances. It was a failed experiment. In Kerala too, it will be the same.”
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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