Weeks after an IAS officer was transfered for criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Facebook, the central government has now passed a rule prohibiting the IAS officers from being critical of the government on social media.
The government on Tuesday announced the proposed changes stating that any explicitly criticism of government policies on social media will be treated as a violation of conduct rules.
The proposed change in the rule includes not just social media posts, but also any sort of caricatures that are found critical of the government.
The new social media rule, however, encourages the officials to use social media in discharge of their duties or otherwise, as long as they do not cross the line.
Though there always has been a rule that prohibited government officials from criticising government policy or making statements that embarrass the Centre’s relations with a state government or a foreign country. The provision, however, was limited to radio broadcast, television or documents. With the new set of rules for social media, the gaps now has been addressed.
Last month, an IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh was pulled up for liking a Facebook post calling for a people’s revolution (jan kranti) against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He had also praised Jawaharlal Nehru.
IAS officer Ajay Singh was first transferred and later issued a one-line notice to give an explanation on the purported Facebook post dated January 23, 2015, which referred to an opinion piece in the editorial page of Jansatta. The piece, written by a contributor, was critical of Modi’s Make in India.
According to The Indian Express, Gangwar has claimed that the post in question is not on his timeline and that he may have ‘liked’ an article shared on Facebook but never made that comment.
“I will ask them about the source of that post. They probably got it from social media. They are doing this because their action of transferring me for my comments on Nehru boomeranged on them. They are doing this to divert attention,’’ the 54-year-old officer had told Indian Express.
