Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel H.D. Kumaraswamy on Sunday, 30 August launched a sharp offensive against the Congress government in Karnataka over alleged irregularities in the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC), demanding that State Home Minister Priyank Kharge explain how arrested IAS officer Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar was able to travel to Delhi while an Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation was actively underway at his residence.

The Core Accusation

Speaking at a press conference at the Janata Dal (Secular) headquarters, J.P. Bhavan, in Bengaluru, Kumaraswamy posed a pointed series of questions: 'How did Gyanendra go to Delhi? Whose permission did he take to leave Bengaluru? When the Enforcement Directorate was conducting searches here, why did he suddenly go to Delhi? What did he do there? Who took him away after the incident involving a woman? Who eventually took him to Chennai? Who brought him back from Chennai and kept him at a resort near Devanahalli for three days?'

Kumaraswamy directed his fire squarely at Kharge: 'These are questions the Home Minister has to answer. Could all this have happened without his knowledge? Or was the State intelligence machinery asleep?'

Gyanendra Kumar's Arrest and Timeline

IAS officer Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar was arrested on Sunday in connection with the alleged KPSC scam and remanded in judicial custody. According to reports, he had reportedly gone missing following ED searches at his residence before appearing before the state CID's Special Investigation Wing for questioning — a sequence of events that Kumaraswamy argued could not have unfolded without official cover or complicity.

Pattern of Arrests Followed by Promotions

Kumaraswamy also raised a broader systemic concern, questioning whether the arrest would translate into genuine accountability. 'An officer is arrested today, there is considerable action for a month or two, and then the same individual is given an even more influential posting. What message does this send? Does this amount to genuine action against wrongdoing, or does it simply create the conditions for further irregularities?' he asked.

He alleged that the Congress government lacked both the political will and the intention to reform the KPSC. 'The state government neither has the will nor the intention to clean up KPSC. If it genuinely wants to act, it must go beyond arresting one officer and answer the larger questions about how this system was allowed to function,' he said.

Veterinary Recruitment Anomalies and High Court Scrutiny

Kumaraswamy also cited alleged discrepancies in the veterinary officer recruitment examination, claiming that candidates who scored 95 per cent marks had been ranked far below candidates who had reportedly failed earlier examinations and yet secured the second rank. 'Priyank Kharge must explain what kind of magic this is,' he said.

He further noted that the Karnataka High Court has been hearing recruitment irregularity cases 'almost every day', including an intervention in the recruitment of Junior Engineers in the Water Resources Department. 'These are not issues that can simply be brushed aside,' he added.

Kumaraswamy's Challenge to Kharge

Recalling a statement Kharge had reportedly made before coming to power — that he would abolish the KPSC — Kumaraswamy challenged him to act: 'You once said that if you get power, you would abolish KPSC. Now you have power. Clean it. Use whichever soap or detergent you want, but clean KPSC.'

He also defended his own record as Karnataka Chief Minister on two occasions, stating that he had never permitted irregularities and had appointed a person from the Dalit community as KPSC Chairman during his 2006 tenure. 'During my tenure, was even one question paper leaked? Priyank Kharge must answer that,' he said.

With the KPSC scam now before both investigative agencies and the High Court, the political pressure on the Karnataka government is set to intensify in the coming weeks.