Mumbai: ‘Aaj agar Bapu hote, shaayad mere sang sang rote, kehete kandhe par rakhkar haath, kat jayegi ye kaali raat (If Bapu was here today, he would have probably cried with me; he would have put a hand on my shoulder and said this dark night will end soon).’
Maharashtra cadre IAS officer Nidhi Choudhari, who was shunted out Monday for her alleged disrespectful tweets on Mahatma Gandhi, wrote these lines on Facebook early Tuesday.
The verse, part of a 112-line poem, explains the sarcasm behind her original tweet, which she writes was prompted by deep anguish at seeing people hail Gandhi’s assassin, Nathuram Godse, and her exasperation with those who condemned her for the tweet.
At the end of the poem, the 35-year-old bureaucrat put up a disclaimer — “Views are deeply and purely personal. Not written in official capacity. Infer the intended meanings. Don’t jump to conclusions without reading every word of the poem.”
Choudhari, a 2012 batch IAS officer, was transferred as deputy secretary, water supply and sanitation department, from her previous posting as the deputy municipal commissioner, special projects, in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government had ordered the transfer after the opposition targeted it for inaction over her tweets.
The government also issued her a showcause notice under sections of the All India Service Conduct (AISC) Rules, 1968, asking her why disciplinary action should not be initiated against her.
On 17 May, Choudhari tweeted, “What an exceptional celebration of the 150th birth anniversary is going on… High time we remove his face from our currency, his statues from across the world, rename institutions/roads names after him! That would be a real tribute from all of us! That you #Godse for 30.01.1948.”
She later deleted the tweet, put out from her personal handle, saying people misunderstood it, adding that if they had followed her timeline since 2011, they would have known that it was never her intention to insult Gandhi.
“I have deleted my tweet of 17.05.2019 w.r.t Gandhiji because some people misunderstood it…I bow before him with deepest regard and will do till last breath,” she tweeted on 31 May by when the matter had flared up.
https://twitter.com/nidhichoudhari/status/1134520012398456832
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‘Well-intentioned, but outspoken’
A BMC official who did not wish to be named said Choudhari was one of the few people he regularly follows on Twitter and knew her as someone who uses the platform to speak out on critical social issues.
“She was very sensitive and outspoken on social and political issues. When I first read her 17 May tweet about Gandhi, I knew where she was coming from,” he said. “She was deeply hurt by Malegaon blast accused Pragya Thakur’s candidature and her remarks on slain IPS officer Hemant Karkare and later Godse,” the BMC official added.
“I was worried about her. I thought hardcore BJP karyakartas may target her. But, it turned out to be entirely the opposite,” he said, adding she would regularly tweet on social issues such as women empowerment, democracy, and even put out thoughtful tweets on leaders such as B.R. Ambedkar, Mahatma Phule and Savitribai Phule.
On 20 April, following Pragya Thakur’s remarks on Karkare, Choudhari tweeted, “We stand with every martyr and maligning statements made in public forum about martyrs are deeply painful. Salute #HemantKarkare…”
https://twitter.com/nidhichoudhari/status/1119508553226604544
Similarly, amid allegations over tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs), the bureaucrat tweeted, “…Your doubts cast doubts on the work of millions of public servants who burn the midnight oil for ensuring free & fair elections,” she said.
https://twitter.com/nidhichoudhari/status/1130726341270282240
In the past, Choudhari has tweeted on the bridge collapse in Mumbai, questioning if the structural audit had failed, despite being posted with the BMC. She has also pushed for the women’s reservation bill and hailed Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik for ensuring female political participation.
A senior BMC official said former municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta had once unofficially advised her to tone down her tweets, telling her that there was a certain framework within which bureaucrats should operate.
While the IAS Officers Association has not officially commented on Choudhari’s tweet or the transfer, retired IAS officer V. Ramani tweeted in her defence, saying, “From my IAS cadre…if you see her TL it is clear that this was intended sarcastically. From what I have seen of her SM postings she is well-intentioned. Time to forget and move on.”
‘A daredevil officer’
Choudhari, a history graduate with post-graduate degrees in English literature and public administration, first moved out of her home town in Rajasthan’s Didwana to work with the Reserve Bank of India in Chennai.
As deputy municipal commissioner, special projects, with the BMC, she was in charge of most of the city’s important and sensitive portfolios — taking action on encroachments, hawkers, implementing the plastic ban introduced in the city last year and so on.
She was the first IAS officer appointed to head the BMC’s critical encroachment removal exercise.
“She is a daredevil officer who completed every work in a time-bound manner. In the encroachment department, for the first time, she put the focus on rehabilitation of hawkers along with the eviction of unauthorised hawkers,” one of Choudhari’s colleagues in the department said. “Until then, the exercise had largely focused only on eviction.”
Prior to her appointment to the BMC in 2017, Choudhari was the chief executive officer at the Palghar Zilla Parishad. She made headlines here for moves such as sacking 10 Zilla Parishad officials who were absent for more than two years and filing a case against a local MLA for allegedly confining her in her office for over three hours.
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At her new posting, Choudhari will be a cog in the wheel as against her previous two postings where she was an administrative in charge.
The bureaucrat has now been ensuring that the Twitterati is aware of her respect for Gandhi by pulling out all her old tweets in reverence of the leader and highlighting that My Experiments with Truth is one of her favourite books.
we should not highlights this kind of comments……she is an IAS officer and in responsible post …..we are in hunger n unemployment with huge number….please put your brain and strength in that…..we will salute you……
She is in violation of her service contract. If she wants to join politics get out of IAS. Unprofessional and incompetent people not needed. Lok Sabha 43% have criminal charges. This clown should go join them. Indians talk too much hardly show any work ethic. Good for nothing RSS troll
Though sharing thoughts in sarcastic manner with good intentions beware that society is in general not so educated and humorous that can understand and tolerate sarcasm.