The fact that Congress MP Raghavan did not get the support of his own party in his criticism of Prashanth speaks highly of the political class’s reluctance to be seen working against an officer who has the public support. Prashanth is visible at cultural functions, calls Kozhikode his ‘karmabhoomi’ and is there to lend a hand when his constituents need him, unlike the politicians who are seen once in five years. Just because my profile picture keeps smiling at you 24×7, doesn’t mean that I’m sitting there throughout,” he had said.īut what appeals most to his fans is an image of a hardworking IAS officer rebelling against the system and refusing to follow the beaten track. “Putting a post on Facebook takes just five minutes. The IAS officer, in an email interview last year, had told me that when public representatives complain that he spends too much on social media, it cries for the requirement of e-literacy. Through humour, widely interspersed in Malayalam cinema, Prashanth cleverly brushed aside the MP’s jab at him and has earned applause from the public. It’s a hilarious scene that evokes laughter in me every time it comes on television. The woman, who is by now angry at the man’s reluctance to show her the local town, manhandles him, until he is rescued by the woman’s son. The man, flummoxed by the question, tells her the town cannot be seen on a map of North America. The woman, who clearly does not understand the concept of maps, asks him to point out a local town in Kerala on a map of North America. The man yells out ‘maap, maap’ and the woman mistakes it for the word ‘apology’ and asks him why he is asking forgiveness from a random stranger. In the scene, a man selling maps arrives at the doorstep of a house where an old, slightly deranged woman stays. Prashanth’s joke is derived straight out of a comedy scene from a popular Malayalam film.
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The joke went viral on the social platform and made headlines on all TV news networks.Īlso read: Collector says sorry to MP for Facebook post Now, the word for ‘apology’ in Malayalam is ‘map’ or ‘maap’. Now you may wonder, what’s the connection? It’s a hilarious trick the IAS officer played using a word play. Prashanth, after denying the allegations, promptly put up a map of a local town in Kerala on his personal Facebook page. He also demanded that the collector apologise for it. The Congress MP blasted the IAS officer complaining of a delay in clearing bills of contractors who had taken up projects under the MPLADS programme. Add to that, he is funny and has a great sense of humour. He has been credited with setting up crowdfunded campaigns for the poor and initiatives that get massive popular support. He has gazillion followers on Facebook and is quite rightly a social media star. Now Prashanth is no unknown in the state. This past week, an incident came to light in Kerala when Prashanth Nair, the district collector of Kozhikode locked horns with Congress MP MK Raghavan, the lawmaker elected from the district in 2014.
He would regret it, but it was not a choice he could make, he said. On a trip to Assam recently, an IAS officer told me in private that he was unsure where he would get flung to after a new government comes in. Like seeds spit out after eating a watermelon, such officers are transferred or dumped into an insignificant department if he/she faces the wrath of the lawmaker. No prizes for guessing who comes out on top in such situations. Tussles and fights between bureaucrats and politicians are not uncommon in India.