Khemka to retire today: An IAS career marked by transfers, truth and tenacity
Ashok Khemka, one of Haryana’s most discussed and admired IAS officers, will retire on April 30 — his 60th birthday — after a 33-year career defined by integrity, frequent transfers, and resistance to political pressure. A 1991-batch officer, Khemka served in 57 different postings, many of them short-lived and often peripheral.
A government officer who was, is, or intends to be corrupt knows where and how to obtain patronage for a choice posting.
— Ashok Khemka on X
Currently posted as the administrative secretary of the Transport Department — a relatively significant post he’s held for five months — this marks a rare phase of stability in his long career.
Born in Kolkata on April 30, 1965, Khemka is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and holds a PhD in Computer Science from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
Khemka shot to national attention in 2012 when, as Director General of Land Records and Consolidation, he cancelled the mutation of a controversial land deal between real estate giant DLF and a company owned by Robert Vadra, son-in-law of then Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The action led to his immediate transfer by the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government.
When the BJP came to power in 2014, Khemka was made Transport Commissioner. But his decision to not issue fitness certificates to oversized trucks led to a transport strike in January 2015. Undeterred, he tweeted: “60% of road accidents [are] due to overloaded and oversized transport vehicles... The choice is between road safety, protection of public property and environment on the one side, and private profits on the other.”
The government yielded, but Khemka was transferred again in April. On X (formerly Twitter), he wrote: “Tried hard to address corruption and bring reforms in Transport… Moment is truly painful.”
His transfers spanned across regimes — Congress, BJP, and the earlier INLD government. In 2004, he was removed after objecting to mid-session teacher transfers. Assigned an obscure OSD role without a car or office, he walked 6 km to the Secretariat, only to find no room allotted. Ironically, the Congress, then in Opposition, backed him.
Khemka often said he wasn’t a whistle-blower, just doing his duty. “Hurt when labelled [a] whistle-blower officer. I do what is expected of public servants. Not doing so would be misconduct,” he posted in 2015.
His performance reports too were controversial. In one instance, a rating raised by a minister was reduced by the CM, which he challenged and initially won in court. The Supreme Court later reversed the decision in 2024.
Khemka’s foresight was later vindicated in multiple cases, including the Vadra-DLF land deal and the seeds scam, both flagged by the CAG.
In 2023, he shared a couplet by poet Waseem Barelvi that captured his journey: “Jhoot wale kahin se kahin badh gaye, Aur main tha ki sach bolta reh gaya.”
