IAS officer in Rajasthan govt makes defamatory comments against Janta Ka Reporter, tweets in serious breach of Services (Conduct) Rules

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JKR Staff
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An IAS officer working under Rajasthan’s BJP government has made incredibly defamatory remarks against Janta Ka Reporter while also asking his followers to make public the residential address of the website’s editor-in-chief, Rifat Jawaid.

Sanjay Dixit, who’s known for his pro-BJP and anti-Islamic tweets on the microblogging site, Twitter, is currently working as commissioner of departmental enquiries in the Rajasthan government.

He had previously worked as a principal secretary in the Sanskrit education department of the Vasundhara Raje government.

The CBI had raided his residences in February 2010 after he allegedly used his office for verifying the certificate of the history sheeter for securing the latter’s passport in July 2007.

Dixit on Saturday launched a tirade against Janta Ka Reporter and Rifat calling them a ‘mouthpiece of AAP (Aam Aadmi Party)’ and alleging an Islamic link to the website’s coverage.

He was reacting to a report on a Canadian university withdrawing its permission to an event, where Tarek Fatah was expected to speak.

Reacting to Dixit’s defamatory comments, Rifat tweeted tagging Raje and asking if it was appropriate for a civil servant under her government to make defamatory comments. Rifat also asked if Dixit’s actions in repeatedly defaming individuals and insulting Islam had her approval.

This led to a Twitter spat between Dixit and Rifat prompting the former to post a tweet, which asked for the personal address of the latter to be made public.

Moments later, one of Dixit’s followers tweeted an address, claiming to be that of Rifat’s which was promptly retweeted by the IAS officer.

Reacting to the development, Rifat said, “This is extraordinary and chilling to say the least. First a civil servant frequently throws the All India Services (Conduct) Rules out of window with impunity, then he threatens to compromise our safety. Amidst the environment of Muslims being lynched to death by the right-wing groups, this IAS officer’s irresponsible action is reprehensible. I’ve taken the screenshots of all his Saturday’s tweets. ”

Dixit has been in constant contravention of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules by not adhering to impartiality and good behaviour that an IAS officer is expected to in public life.

Within two months of coming to power in the Centre, the Narendra Modi government had decided to amend the service conduct rules for bureaucrats, mandating them to be politically neutral, besides maintaining high ethical standards and discharging their duties with impartiality.

A statement from the ministry of personnel had said that the government of India had amended the All India Services (Conduct) Rules,1968, so that officials of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and the Indian Forest Service (IFoS) should maintain “high ethical standards, integrity and honesty; political neutrality; promoting of the principles of merit, fairness and impartiality in the discharge of duties (and) accountability and transparency.”

Now let’s look at some of the tweets posted by Dixit and see if they stand the test of fairness, impartiality, neutrality and whether promote the principles of merit, high ethical standards, integrity and political neutrality.

Just check the language by this IAS officer targetting a veteran and award-winning journalist, Nikhil Wagle.

Later, Wagle tweeted calling him a serial offender, whose action could be best termed as a ‘BJP troll.’

Here’s his defamatory tweet against Rifat and Janta Ka Reporter.

His tweet showing biases in favour of the RSS and attacking the CPI-M, a recognised political party of India.

And the tweet that conclusively proves his bigotry against other faiths questioning his act as a civil servant working in the secular Indian Union.

This tweet endorsing the right-wing groups’ demand to remove Muslim references to names of places. By including Allahabad, he’s further demonstrated his hatred for Islam as Allah remains the only divine power that Muslims are expected to worship.

He jumps into the debate by once again throwing the impartiality rule out of the window even though the matter did not concern him. He uses insulting term for Islam here.

 

Tweet calling Rifat an ‘Islamist,’ which, according to Oxford dictionary means ‘an advocate or supporter of Islamic militancy or fundamentalism.’

Rifat said that whilst he had been upset with Dixit’s ‘shenanigans’ causing disrepute to the IAS fraternity for quite sometime, the development on Saturday has made him determined to seek legal advice.

“I’ve just spoken to my lawyers, who think Dixit’s tweets are indeed defamatory and in breach of the IAS Service Rules. We are going to serve him a legal notice asking for damages as his utterly irresponsible behaviour has adversely impacted our ability to seek investment. It’s safe to say that Dixit’s action has caused crores of rupees of damage to our investment opportunities.”

Janta Ka Reporter is an independent media platform and was launched by Rifat, who’s had over 22 years of experience in active journalism. He spent over 12 years working with the BBC in UK across divisions and platforms at a fairly senior level with his last role being of International Coordinating Editor, where he provided editorial leadership to over 400 staff spread across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Arab World. He also had a brief stint with the India Today Group, where he worked as the Managing Editor-input for all four TV channels, Aaj Tak, Headlines Today, Dilli Aaj Tak and Tez.

He had launched Janta Ka Reporter on 3 May 2015.

 

 

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