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'Why insult an officer': Priyanka Chaturvedi, Himanta Biswa Sarma fight it out on Twitter
Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said VIP culture can not be changed by recording videos of publicly humiliating a bureaucrat. "If we are trying that in Assam, you should bless us, not criticise," Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
Reacting to Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's public act of schooling a government official, the video of which surfaced on social media, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said the chief minister should share clear instruction before "choosing to insult an officer who was doing his job".
The job here was to clear Himanta Biswa Sarma's convoy by halting the traffic on National Highway 37. The chief minister called deputy commissioner Nagaon and gave him an earful for stopping the traffic for him. "Arrey DC sahab yeh kya natak hain. Kyun gadi ruka hain? Koi raja, maharaja aaraha hain kya? (What is this drama? Why are the cars held up in traffic? Is any king coming for a visit?)," he asked the deputy commissioner.
Watch how Himanta Sarma got off his car to clear traffic jam; scolded officer
The chief minister was quoted as saying that there was a clear direction to not create inconvenience for people during his visit. "For over 15 minutes, National Highway was blocked including ambulances. This VIP culture is not acceptable in today's Assam," Sarma said.
"DC Nagaon, Sh Nisarg Hivare, was just following the protocol duty. If the CM wants to give up his protocol, rather than being disrespectful to the DC, he can issue a notification for new norms. This seems a publicity exercise, to achieve that by humiliating an officer is condemnable," Priyanka tweeted.
As Sena MP implied that the public humiliation of a government official was uncalled for and the show was a publicity exercise, Himanta told her that halting traffic on National Highway is not the standard practice. It was the "over-activism" of the Police, which needs to be stopped. "If we are trying that in Assam, you should bless us, not criticise," Sarma wrote.
To this, Priyanka Chaturvedi cited the VIP security rules of the home ministry and said that changing the VIP culture, which everyone in the country would want, does not happen by recording videos of publicly humiliating a bureaucrat.
“For a minute if one was to pause and think, if these words to humiliate a DC were used by a non-BJP Chief Minister, there would be an explosion of TV debates asking CM to step down. But he’s from BJP, toh jo bhi kiya acche ke liye hi kiya hoga," Priyanka added.
