Tehsildar triggers row after FB post on ‘Rajiv Gandhi Suicide Scheme’

INDORE: Barely a fortnight after Barwani ex-collector Ajay Singh Gangwar was shunted for praising former Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru on Facebook, a tehsildar from Ratlam district has kicked off a controversy through a post on a ‘Rajiv Gandhi Atmahatya Yojana’ (Rajiv Gandhi Suicide Scheme).

In a comment posted on Tuesday, Amita Singh – a Gwalior resident serving as the tehsildar of Raoti village in Sailana subdivision – asked the government to launch a scheme with this title for “people who envy Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.

Though the post was later deleted, Ratlam district collector (in-charge) Harjinder Singh served Amita a show-cause notice and asked her to reply in three days.

Many of Amita’s colleagues and Facebook friends started targeting her as soon as the post went viral. Congress Rajya Sabha MP Digvijay Singh, for his part, shared a couplet written in Bagheli by retired IAS officer Akhilendu Arjeria: “Gangwar ki post ko khub padhe, Shivraj. Amita Singh ko bhi padhe, kiya post jo aaj (Shivraj Singh has read Gangwar’s post, now read Amita Singh’s post also).”

Alleging a political bias in the implementation of laws, Arjeria – in another post – asked the chief minister if Amita would get an out-of-turn promotion for her pro-Modi statement on the social networking site.