14 Jul 2018
Modi Government Has Different Benchmarks for IAS Officers in Different States
New Delhi: At the Centre’s request, the Jammu and Kashmir government has initiated a departmental inquiry against IAS officer Shah Faesal – topper of the 2010-batch IAS exam – for a tweet expressing his anguish at incidents of violence against women.
On April 23, Faesal had tweeted, “Population + Patriarchy + Illiteracy + Alcohol + Porn + Technology + Anarchy = Rapistan”. The government notice he received said, “You have allegedly failed to maintain absolute honesty and integrity in the discharge of official duty and thus acted in a manner unbecoming of a public servant.”
This isn’t the first time the Centre has invoked the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969, against a member of the Services. In February, the Home Ministry wanted IPS officer Basant Rath disciplined for writing columns “dangerously critical of government policy”.
Last month, he shared a fake letter ‘exposing’ the West Bengal’s government’s ‘pro-Muslim policies’ and labeled the state as “Islamic state of West Bangladesh”.
“Meanwhile, Islamic State of West Bangladesh declares the longest Eid holiday ever — a full 5 days of free salary and compulsory holiday for the faithful and infidel alike,” he had tweeted. He later deleted the tweet after getting called out by Kolkata Police on Twitter.
Dixit is also a columnist for The Print website and Swarajya.
Meanwhile, senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka came out in support of Faesal and tweeted: “Many misinterpret service rules. Service rules do not make you a servant of the ruler. Service rule is a code of conduct for an employee to abide by Constitutional principles and rule of law, equity, justice and good conscience.”