Asifnagar cop draws flak for ‘congratulatory’ tweet to BJP MP, deletes it
By Amritha Mohan Published on 28 Jan 2020 8:29 AM GMT
Hyderabad: Asifnagar police is caught in a fix. Their tweet congratulating BJP MP Arvind Dharmapuri for the party’s victory in the municipal polls, has been questioned by Twitter users.
On January 25, the Nizamabad Lok Sabha member had taken to Twitter to express his gratitude towards the voters in his constituency in the Telangana Municipal elections. He said, “I thank the people of Indur (Nizamabad), from bottom of my heart for giving this mandate for BJP and proclaiming their faith in narendra modiji’s leadership. It’s a gift from Indur to our beloved PM and a strong foundation for 2023 assembly polls..”
The BJP had won 28 seats, emerging as the single largest party in the Nizamabad municipal corporation. The Telangana municipal polls were held on January 22.
It was to this tweet that Station House Officer (SHO) of Asifnagar replied, from their official Twitter account saying “Congratulations…” However, the reply from the police station had been later deleted.
Commenting on the “congratulations” tweet, N. Ravinder, SHO of Asifnagar police station told NewsMeter, “The tweet was done by mistake. We are verifying it further, and more details cannot be given.”
The tweet by the Asifnagar police has sparked a controversy on the microblogging website. While the All India Services (Conduct) Rules mandate that “Every member of the service shall maintain political neutrality,” among several other guidelines to be followed by public servants, netizens claim that this is a blatant violation of the same. A Twitter handle named 'Just Hyderabadi Things' had also posted on Twitter, highlighting how the Asifnagar police "praise BJP or their policies" through their likes.
Earlier on January 12, a tweet by Cyberabad police from their official Twitter account had created public uproar after they had commented that they have "specialised wings for collection of advance Intel". Their tweet was in response to one Twitter user named Suresh Kochattil, who had asked what Cyberabad police was doing to assess "wannabe jihadis who work for American software companies in Hyderabad."
