The Madhya Pradesh IAS officer Ajay Singh Gangwar, who was shunted out because of his decision to praise India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, has defended his Facebook post.
Describing the government’s decision an ideological issue, Gangwar said that it was the BJP government’s prerogative to transfer him.
He told Indian Express, “I think it’s an ideological issue. They are promoting certain icons and I was praising someone else (Nehru). What’s wrong in teaching history to the younger generation, which is unaware of his contribution and is forming wrong perceptions about him.”
Gangwar detected a glaring irony in his punishment saying while the central government promoted social media, in his case it had become a crime.
He added, “It is ironic that the central government is promoting use of social media. It is not a crime to comment on certain issues. There’s no policy that one can or cannot do certain things on social media.”
Gangwar, a Barwani district Collector, was transferred by Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday night because he praised the country’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in a Facebook post. Gangwar was transferred as Deputy Secretary in the Secretariat in Bhopal.
“The state government has transferred Barwani Collector Gangwar as Deputy Secretary in the Mantralaya in Bhopal,” a state Public Relations department official.
Gangwar, a 2005-batch IAS officer, had also served as special assistant to former chief minister and AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh in the past.