Nidhi Choudhari said her post on Mahatma Gandhi was written in a "sarcastic" vein
The IAS officer who triggered a row with her "sarcastic" tweet thanking Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, has been transferred from her post. The government has also issued her a show-cause notice and asked her to explain the comments. Her new boss, water resources minister Girish Mahajan, said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has taken "a critical view" of her comment and ordered her transfer.
Tweeting with the hashtag "#Godse", Nidhi Choudhari had appeared to question the 150th birth anniversary celebrations for Mahatma Gandhi.
As criticism of her tweet poured in from all quarters, including the Congress and Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, the officer said she was a follower of Gandhian ideas and that her tweet was written in a sarcastic vein but was taken at face value.
Today, the 2012-batch officer of the Maharashtra cadre, who was Deputy Municipal Commissioner in the Brihanmumbai Corporation -- the country's richest country's civic body - was named the Deputy Secretary in Water Resources and Sanitation department, seen as a less important posting.
Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan told reporters: "IAS officers are expected to speak about issues that concern their departments only. Her comment about Gandhiji was not appreciated."
Ms Chaudhari had deleted the tweet after the controversy and issued several clarifications on social media, saying she revered the Mahatma. "I would never insult Mahatma Gandhi. Don't they understand that I wrote this tweet sarcastically?" she had told NDTV.
"I thanked Godse as Mahatma Gandhi did not have to watch these times... People have been writing so much negative and wrong things about Mahatma Gandhi on social media. The negative posts on Mahatma Gandhi have been more visible since January this year and that's why I wrote this tweet," she added.