Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju has found himself on the wrong side of law after he tweeted a video of a soldier slamming whom he believed were ‘anti-nationals’. Many have pointed out that the video was a violation of the Army Act, and the minister was seen endorsing the violation by tweeting the video. The minister was also accused of double standards as his government was quick to clamp down on another BSF soldier who had outed on social media the poor quality of food served to them.
The soldier in the video, Shriram Gorde, is a member of the 9th Maratha Infantry posted in Jamnagar. He told NDTV that the video was from his address at "Rashtriya Katha Shivir" - an event organised by a religious group held on December 28 at Pransla, 100 km from Rajkot.
Advertisement
In the video, the soldier, lashes out at students of Jawaharlal Nehru University, who, according to him, sympathised with Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and chanted slogans of ‘Bharat Murdabad’. The video had first surfaced during the student agitations in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) last year.
“We fight against terrorism, Maoists to keep our country safe. But now it looks like the biggest threat is from those who live in this country but give slogans of Bharat murdabad,” he says in the video, adding, ““We don’t feel sad to see Afzal Guru being hanged. But we are sad to see people chant slogans that Afzal hum sharminda hai, tere qatil zinda hai.”
Advertisement
Tweeting the video, minister Rijiju said he was sad that jawans are forced to speak with heavy heart. “Pain runs deeper than the Ocean,” he tweeted, supporting the soldier. His tweet has come amidst the ongoing controversy over the student agitations in Delhi University following alleged vandalism by ABVP workers at Ramjas College. The row picked further momentum after DU student and Kargil martyr’s daughter Gurmehar Kaur took on the ABVP on social media. Rijiju, positioning himself in the opposite camp, took on the girl by asking ‘who is polluting this young girl’s (Gaur) mind?’
However, many have questioned the minister’s tweet. Service rules prevent government servants from going public with political views or grievances or speaking at such events. Last month, Army chief Bipin Rawat had asked the armed forces personnel not to take to the social media to express their grievances about food and living conditions saying that doing so would invite punishment.
Soldier Gorde told NDTV he was aware of the rules, but could not help speaking up because he was "too agitated". "When I got the chance to speak at this event, I went and expressed myself."
Reacting to Rijiju’s tweet, twitterari reminded him of the video posted by jawan Tej Bahadur who had posted a video alleging that substandard food was being served for soldiers. Twitterati said the government was not pained for Tej Bahadur and it even hounded him for taking army matters to the public platform.
