A senior IAS officer, chastened by the Madhya Pradesh government for deriding saffron icons in a Facebook post, has triggered a debate on whether civil servants have the right to make their political
A senior IAS officer, chastened by the Madhya Pradesh government for deriding saffron icons in a Facebook post, has triggered a debate on whether civil servants have the right to make their political views public.
A section of the bureaucracy in MP feel that the ex-collector of Barwani district, Ajey Gangwar, has given a spark to the simmering discontent among the fraternity about being shackled by rigid rules, while some others see his actions as a challenge to the system that may hamper governance.
Mr Gangwar appeared to have taken a swipe at the BJP while being effusive in praise of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
“Is it his (Nehru’s) mistake that he prevented all of us from becoming Hindu Talibani Rashtra in 1947 Is it his mistake that he honoured Sarabhai, Homi Jehangir in place of intellectuals like Asaram, Baba Ramdev ” his Facebook post that had created a ripple in the MP government said. Mr Gangwar was immediately transferred from his post.
“A civil servant should have the liberty to express his view in public. Where shall else a civil servant place his personal views If conduct rules come in way of a civil servant expressing his view freely in public, then a debate on amending such rules should begin”, senior civil servant Azad Singh Debas was quoted as saying in the media.
However, chief secretary of MP government, Antony D’sa, strongly disapproved. He said that a civili servant expressing his views publicly is a violation of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules.
In Chhattisgarh, Balrampur district collector Alex Paul Menon, who had spent six days in the Naxal custody after being abducted in south Bastar in 2012, has also drawn the ire of the BJP-run state government for supporting JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar.
