After Praising Nehru On Facebook, IAS Officer Is Transferred

Bhopal: A senior bureaucrat in Madhya Pradesh has been transferred after he praised former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on Facebook (see screenshot below).

Ajay Singh Gangwar has now deleted his post, which he first published last week, after it went viral on internet.

The ruling BJP says he has been penalized because he violated a basic rule - bureaucrats are not meant to share political affiliations.

"He has violated code of conduct. If in the name of freedom of speech, we will insult the system, that is wrong," said Vishwas Sarang of the BJP.
 But the opposition Congress says that the ruling BJP has proven its intolerance for any praise of a Congress stalwart and a freedom fighter. "It is condemnable that a statesman like Nehru is spoken of and the person is demoted. This creates fear," said the party's Meem Afzal.

Mr Gangwar, was the Collector or top bureaucrat in the area of Barwani, 350 km from the state capital of Bhopal. He has been reassigned to a routine administrative post in the Bhopal secretariat or state government's headquarters.

His Facebook post supported Mr Nehru's secularism and appeared to jab at the BJP. "Let me know the mistakes that Nehru should not have committed...Is it his mistake that he prevented all of us from becoming Hindu Talibani Rashtra in 1947? Is it his mistake to open IIT, ISRO, BARC, IISB, IIM, BHEL steel plant, dams, thermal power? Is it his mistake that he honoured Sarabhai, Homi Jehangir in place of intellectuals like Asaram and Ramdev?" the post read.

Sources say senior officials who found out about his Facebook post consulted ministers and an inquiry was ordered. After the post was verified, the sources say, the transfer was announced.