Govt serves notice to J&K bureaucrat for sarcastic comment on rape

With incidents of rape occurring in the country like RBI print Rs 500 notes daily, even a slightly deflected comment on the issue is condemnable and might prompt action against the motormouth. In a recent incident, an IAS officer from Jammu and Kashmir did the same and a departmental inquiry has been initiated against him.

Former Managing Director of J&K State Power Development Corporation Shah Faesal, who is a 2010-batch IAS officer, had posted in his April 22 tweet that ‘Patriarchy+Population+Illiteracy+Alcohol+Porn+Technology+Anarchy = Rapistan!’. Taking the matter into cognisance, the Department of Personnel and Training had issued a letter and asked the J&K General Administration Department to initiate an inquiry into Faesal’s tweets.

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In the letter, the enquiry has been set up as Faesal ‘allegedly failed to maintain absolute honesty and integrity” in discharge of his official duty, reports Indian Express. The letter states, “ The department of personnel and training, Government of India, a copy of communication along with its enclosures, in which several references have been made by you in which contents are prima facie in contravention of the extant provisions of all India services (service rules).”

Love letter from my boss for my sarcastic tweet against rape-culture in South Asia.
The Irony here is that service rules with a colonial spirit are invoked in a democratic India to stifle the freedom of conscience.
I’m sharing this to underscore the need for a rule change. pic.twitter.com/ssT8HIKhIK

— Shah Faesal (@shahfaesal) July 10, 2018

Currently, Faesal is on leave and is on a Fulbright scholarship to the US. He even tweeted on Tuesday to inform that he had been served a notice. He further wrote, “Love letter from my boss for my sarcastic tweet against rape-culture in South Asia. The Irony here is that service rules with a colonial spirit are invoked in a democratic India to stifle the freedom of conscience. I’m sharing this to underscore the need for a rule change.”

Although served a notice, Faesal called this a ‘bureaucratic over-enthusiasm’. Speaking to the media, he said that since rape is not a part of government policy, so ‘criticism of rape would mean criticism of government policy and invite action’.

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