IAS officer stirs row in MP with statements on 'The Kashmir Files'

Praveen Dwivedi

Bhopal, March 23 (IANS) Amid the debate over the movie ‘The Kashmir Files, a parallel controversy has erupted over a senior IAS officer here for his continuous statements on the same subject through his social media account.

For his statements on director Vivek Agnihotri's Hindi movie‘The Kashmir File', IAS officer Niyad Khan who is currently serving as deputy secretary of the PWD in the Madhya Pradesh government, was reminded by a cabinet minister that he is crossing the line. The minister demanded action against Khan, who has written seven novels and is busy with his eighth one.

On Wednesday, Home Minister Narottam Mishra reminded the officer that he is violating the norms of public service and a show-cause notice will be issued to seek his reply. "I have seen Khan's tweets. This is a serious issue. He (Khan) is crossing and violating the lakshman rekha (limit) set for (government) officials. The state government will issue a show-cause notice to him and seek his reply," Mishra said on Wednesday.

In his defence, Khan has maintained that he has made statements on a movie using his constitutional right of expression and alleged that he was being attacked for his religious identity. "I have been a victim of my name, especially my surname Khan. As soon as they hear my name, they label me as a Muslim - and it doesn't matter that I am as secular as anyone can be," Khan had stated on Tuesday.

Khan started making statements on his Twitter account soon after the movie was released. The controversy over Khan gained momentum after one of his statements on his Twitter account, which reads, "I am thinking to write a book to show the massacre of Muslims on different occasions so that a movie like Kashmir Files could be produced by some producer, so that the pain and suffering of minorities could be brought before Indians."

Among several tweets, he pointed directly or indirectly at various people including The Kashmir File's director Vivek Agnihotri, Bollywood actor Aamir Khan and MP and president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Asaduddin Owaisi.

On March 20, Khan had pointed at Owaisi saying, "Owaisi ji is silent on the issue. Please speak on human issues, not only during elections. We have to make a strong country joining shoulders with Hindu brothers. Arab is not our model, India is our model and this land is our motherland."

In another statement he had appealed to ‘The Kashmir Files' producer to transfer all earnings from the movie for the education of the children of Kashmiri Pandits and construction of homes for them in Kashmir.

However, controversy is not new to Niyaz Khan, who has written seven novels. He has been embroiled in controversies either due to his thoughts on various subjects or for his literary subjects.

He has written seven novels titled -- Destiny of Drug, Love Demands Blood, Talaq, My Untold Story of Ashram, Once I Was Blackman and Be Ready to Die. Earlier he had claimed that his novel ‘Love Demands Blood' is based on the love story of gangster Abu Salem and his girlfriend Bollywood actress Monica Bedi. Once he had demanded special leave and permission from the government to allow him to meet Abu Salem in Tihar Jail so that he could find out more for his novel.