New Delhi: “Are[y] tum apni aur apne pappu ke bare mein sochu (sic).”
This comment posted from the official X handle of the Gautam Buddha Nagar or Noida District Magistrate – purportedly taking a sly dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi – on September 13 has raised eyebrows.
The above comment, which translates to, “Hey, why don’t you worry about yourself and your pappu,” was posted by the official handle of the Gautam Buddha Nagar DM in response to a post on X by Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate.
Although the DM’s comment did not name anyone, it is well understood that it refers to Gandhi, the leader of the Opposition, as over the years the Bharatiya Janata Party-led ecosystem have tried to politically infantilise him with the use of such terms.
Shrinate’s post had criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his government’s attempts at tinkering with history. “History cannot be changed. History is made. Narendra Modi realises how history will remember him and that worries him,” Shrinate posted on X along with a clip of her interview by writer Ashok Pandey.
Soon afterwards, social media users pointed out the Gautam Buddha Nagar DM’s controversial reply, Shrinate also called him out in a post.
A 2011-batch IAS Officer, Manish Verma is the DM of Gautam Buddha Nagar. It is not clear if he personally manages this X account or if it is operated by a handler.
“This is the DM of Noida. You must see his language and thoughts about the country’s leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi,” said Shrinate. “It’s clear that the administrative personnel are full of Sanghis. And now they are fuelling hatred sitting on constitutional posts,” she said.
Pawan Khera, chairperson of the Congress’ media and publicity department, also criticised the comment, asking, “Are IAS officers now ordered to make such political comments under the BJP rule?”
The official handle of the Gautam Buddha Nagar DM @dmgbnagar issued a clarification saying that the said comment was posted by some “anti-social element” who had hacked the account. The administration also got an FIR lodged in the matter under sections 66 and 66 of the Information Technology Act.
The FIR was lodged at Noida Sector 20 police station on the complaint of Sunil Kumar Kanaujia assistant director information, Gautam Buddha Nagar against one unknown person.
In the FIR, Kanaujia said that “some anti-social element” hacked the DM Gautam Buddha Nagar’s X account and “misused” it to post the “indecent/political” remark. This was “highly objectionable,” said Kanaujia.
A closer look at the timestamp of the posts on the DM’s account shows that the controversial comment was posted at exactly the same time as a seemingly-genuine post of administrative work, featuring photos and videos of officials.
The controversial comment was posted at 7.34 pm on September 13. At exactly the same time, 7.34 pm hours on September 13, the DM’s handle posted a genuine-looking post of him conducting a spot inspection of the water-logging caused in a village in Jewar tehsil due to rains.
Another post, posted at 17.59 pm, before the controversial comment, also appeared to be genuine. It featured a video of UP cabinet minister Sanjay Kumar Nishad holding a review meeting of the fisheries department.
The GB Nagar administration has said that the comment was being investigated by the police cyber cell.
