Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and CPI(M) leader M.Y. Tarigami on March 25 termed the J&K’s new stringent social media policy for government employees as “violation of their rights”.
Whether it was blacklisting contractors or imposing a social media gag order on employees, a clear intention of “dispossessing people in J&K of their livelihood has emerged”, Ms. Mufti said. “Authorities have become judge, jury and executioner in complete violation of the fundamental rights of people,” she added.
Mr. Tarigami said being a government employee doesn’t mean giving up all legitimate constitutional rights as a citizen. “Barring them from expressing their views about the issues concerning them is tantamount to stripping them of their basic rights. They must be treated as citizens, not as subjects,” Mr. Tarigami said.
The Lieutenant Governor’s administration has framed new rules and guidelines for the government employees in J&K and barred them from discussing politics or posting adverse comments against government policy on social media.
According to the new rules, an employee will lose his or her salary, get demoted or terminated if found criticising the government policies. “No government employee shall post, tweet or share content that is political or anti-secular and communal in nature or subscribe to pages, communities or Twitter handles and blogs of such nature,” the rules said.
The government employees were also directed that even persons dependent on them for maintenance should not “undertake any such activity on social media which is, or tends directly or indirectly to be, subversive of the Government”.
