IAS officer gets notice over rape culture tweet

Shah Faesal, who topped the UPSC exams in 2009, has been served with a notice for his tweet over growing rapes in the country.

The Centre’s Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) underlined his tweet and termed the contents as “prima facie in contravention of the extant provision of the All India Service (Conduct Rules) 1968, All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969.”

Mr. Faesal’s tweet referred to by the DoPT reads: “Patriarchy + Population + Illiteracy + Alcohol + Porn + Technology + Anarchy = Rapistan.” He posted it on April 22 in reference to frequent cases of rapes and sexual harassment reported by the media in the country.

Mr. Faesal is on study leave in Harvard University.

On Tuesday, he posted the notice on Twitter saying, “Love letter from my boss for my sarcastic tweet against rape-culture in South Asia. The Irony here is that service rules with a colonial spirit are invoked in a democratic India to stifle the freedom of conscience. I’m sharing this to underscore the need for a rule change.”

He termed the notice “a case of bureaucratic over-enthusiasm where people who are pushing the files at the top don’t understand the spirit of the times we are living in.”

“The government employees can be hauled for criticism of the government policy, agreed. But in this case if you think rape is part of government policy only then you can take action against me which I believe it isn’t,” he added.