Friday, Apr 26, 2024 | Last Update : 02:06 AM IST
MP IAS officer shunted out for praising Jawaharlal Nehru
A senior IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh has been shunted out of his post after he praised India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in a sarcastic Facebook (FB) post.
A senior IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh has been shunted out of his post after he praised India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in a sarcastic Facebook (FB) post.
Barwani district collector Ajey Singh Gangwar, a 2005 batch IAS officer of MP cadre, was on Thursday shifted to the state secretariat as deputy secretary after his FB comment, that took an indirect dig at Hindu radicals while praising Nehru for steering India to become a modern nation, irked the BJP circles here.
Though his transfer order assigned no reason and nor was there any mention of Mr Gangwar praising Nehru, the orders followed a scrutiny of his FB post by the concerned authorities to examine if it was in violation of All India Services (Conduct) Rules, official sources said on Friday.
“There is no bar on state government officers sharing their views in social media. But they should take care that their comments do not violate the code of conduct”, Lal Singh Arya, minister of state for administration, told reporters here. A senior functionary of the ruling BJP here justified the action against Mr Gangwar, saying, “Bureaucrats should not identify themselves with the ideology of any political party. It is a clear violation of the code of conduct enshrined in IAS service rules”.
The “controversial” FB post in Hindi went: “Is it his (Nehru’s) mistake that he prevented all of us from becoming Hindu Talibani Rashtra in 1947 If establishing IIT, ISRO, BARC, IISB, IIM, BHEL, steel plant, dams, thermal power etc... can be described Nehru’s mistake Is it his mistake to open universities in place of ‘gaushalas’ (cowsheds) and temples Was it his mistake to lead us in a scientific way instead of making us superstitious Is it his mistake to honour Sarabhai, Homi Jehangir in place of intellectuals like Asaram and Ramdev ...”
Ending his post sarcastically, thus: “For all these mistakes Gandhi family’s apology is mandatory”.
The 55-year-old bureaucrat had deleted his post, but only after it went viral.
