Bareilly DM’s Facebook post angers BJP, UP government
The Uttar Pradesh government may take action against Bareilly District Magistrate Raghvendra Vikram Singh for his now deleted Facebook post that has been seen as pointing fingers at right wing groups for fanning tension by raising provocative slogans in predominantly Muslim areas.
The Uttar Pradesh government may take action against Bareilly District Magistrate Raghvendra Vikram Singh for his now deleted Facebook post that has been seen as pointing fingers at right wing groups for fanning tension by raising provocative slogans in predominantly Muslim areas.
Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said action could be taken against Singh for the controversial post.
Singh, 59, deleted the post and tendered an apology, but this is unlikely to be enough to protect him from punitive action.
Maurya said rules prohibited government servants from making such statements on the social media.
“He appeared to be making a statement like a party spokesman despite the fact is that government servants are bound by rules,” Maurya said over phone.
Officials close to the chief minister said Yogi Adityanath is unhappy about the comments.
In the post, Singh wrote that a ‘strange trend’ has started of people raising slogans in Muslim-dominated areas. “These days, a strange trend of visiting Muslim-dominated localities and shouting anti-Pakistani slogans has started. Are they Pakistanis? The same thing happened in Bareilly. Why don’t we raise anti-China slogans when the fact is that China is a bigger enemy than Pakistan?” Singh asked.
His remarks sparked outrage with senior BJP leader Vinay Katiyar demanding action against the official, who is currently in Lucknow to attend a meeting of DMs convened by the chief minister.
Singh, who was also trolled on social media for his remark, later advanced the explanation that his Facebook post was not related to Kasganj, but to a law and order problem that he had encountered during the Kanwar Yatra in Bareilly.
Meanwhile, union home minister Rajnath Singh said a report had been sought from the UP government on the Kasganj clashes.
