An Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from Madhya Pradesh (MP) was transferred after he wrote a Facebook post praising India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Ajay Gangwar, collector of Barwani district, posted an impassioned defence of Nehru on his Facebook page in which he stated that Nehru was responsible for not allowing India to become a “Hindu Taliban Country” after Independence in 1947. Gangwar’s post not only evoked strong reactions from the BJP-led MP government, but also resulted in him being transferred to the Secretariat in Bhopal as a Deputy Secretary.

In his post, Gangwar went on to credit Nehru for helping establish modern India’s premier educational institutions like IITs and IIMs, and also embarking on infrastructural developments like dams, thermal power plants and steel plants. Taking a dig at popular yoga-guru Baba Ramdev and godman Asaram Bapu, Gangwar said Nehru was instrumental in promoting a scientific temperament in the country instead of a superstitious one. Along with Homi Jahangir Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai, Nehru was instrumental in launching India’s space and nuclear programmes, wrote Gangwar. On a sarcastic note, he also said Nehru’s big mistake was that he didn’t open enough temples and gaushalas (cow shelters), and instead built universities.

While Gangwar had taken the post down from his Facebook page, S K Mishra, Principal Secretary to Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Chief Minister of MP), had warned that if the post was found to violate any rules, a clarification would be sought from him. However, Gangwar’s transfer order gave no explanation for the reasons of the transfer and made no mention of Nehru or Facebook.

Meanwhile, Minister of State Lalsingh Arya took offence to Gangwar’s attack on Baba Ramdev, and said Ramdev is a patriot. Earlier this month, the class VIII Social Science textbook in BJP-governed Rajasthan caused a controversy because it omitted Nehru almost entirely from the curriculum. In Left-ruled Tripura, MK Gandhi seems to have been erased from the Class IX history textbook of the Tripura Board of Secondary Education.