Maharashtra IAS officer Nidhi Choudhari was transferred on Monday after courting controversy over a tweet on Mahatma Gandhi. Choudhari was moved from the Mumbai municipal corporation to the water supply department in Mantralaya.
Maharashtra IAS officer Nidhi Choudhari was transferred on Monday after courting controversy over a tweet on Mahatma Gandhi. Choudhari was moved from the Mumbai municipal corporation to the water supply department in Mantralaya.
The 2012-batch IAS officer from Maharashtra in a tweet, now deleted, had called for the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s statues and “thanked” his assassin Nathuram Godse. She has also been issued a show-cause notice by the Maharashtra government for the ‘sarcastic’ tweet.
Choudhari, who was serving as a joint municipal commissioner (Special) in the Mumbai municipality, had on May 17 tweeted, “What an exceptional celebration of the 150th birth anniversary (of Gandhi) is going on. (she had ended the sentence with a crying emoticon). High time, we remove his face from our currency, his statues from across the world, rename institutions/roads named after him! That would be a real tribute from all of us! Thank U #Godse for 30.01.1948 (sic).”
As the controversy erupted, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) demanded Choudhari’s suspension for the ‘derogatory’ tweet saying it glorified Nathuram Godse.
Earlier, in a letter addressed to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, NCP president Sharad Pawar had demanded for ‘exemplary’ action against the Choudhari.
“A government official in a progressive state like Maharashtra making such insulting comments against Mahatma Gandhi, and the state government turning a blind eye to it is a serious matter,” Pawar had said.
Contending that some people “misunderstood” it, Choudhari tweeted on Friday: “I have deleted my tweet of 17.05.2019 w.r.t Gandhiji because some people misunderstood it. If only they had followed my timeline since 2011 they would’ve understood that I would NEVER even dream of insulting Gandhji. I bow before him with deepest regard and will do till last breath (sic).”
When contacted earlier by The Indian Express, Choudhari claimed that she was a devout Gandhian. “My tweet was sarcastic. There were people who were making objectionable personal remarks against Gandhiji and were using slurs against him. My post (on May 17) was in response to that. Some people have clearly misunderstood. Why can’t they see that there was a crying emoticon at the end of the first sentence. I cannot ever think of insulting Gandhiji,” she had said.
The 2012-batch IAS officer from Maharashtra in a tweet, now deleted, had called for the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s statues and “thanked” his assassin Nathuram Godse. She has also been issued a show-cause notice by the Maharashtra government for the ‘sarcastic’ tweet.
Choudhari, who was serving as a joint municipal commissioner (Special) in the Mumbai municipality, had on May 17 tweeted, “What an exceptional celebration of the 150th birth anniversary (of Gandhi) is going on. (she had ended the sentence with a crying emoticon). High time, we remove his face from our currency, his statues from across the world, rename institutions/roads named after him! That would be a real tribute from all of us! Thank U #Godse for 30.01.1948 (sic).”
As the controversy erupted, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) demanded Choudhari’s suspension for the ‘derogatory’ tweet saying it glorified Nathuram Godse.
Earlier, in a letter addressed to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, NCP president Sharad Pawar had demanded for ‘exemplary’ action against the Choudhari.
“A government official in a progressive state like Maharashtra making such insulting comments against Mahatma Gandhi, and the state government turning a blind eye to it is a serious matter,” Pawar had said.
Contending that some people “misunderstood” it, Choudhari tweeted on Friday: “I have deleted my tweet of 17.05.2019 w.r.t Gandhiji because some people misunderstood it. If only they had followed my timeline since 2011 they would’ve understood that I would NEVER even dream of insulting Gandhji. I bow before him with deepest regard and will do till last breath (sic).”
When contacted earlier by The Indian Express, Choudhari claimed that she was a devout Gandhian. “My tweet was sarcastic. There were people who were making objectionable personal remarks against Gandhiji and were using slurs against him. My post (on May 17) was in response to that. Some people have clearly misunderstood. Why can’t they see that there was a crying emoticon at the end of the first sentence. I cannot ever think of insulting Gandhiji,” she had said.