Arun Jaitley advocates freehand to ministers and bureaucrats on social media

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday advocated for freehand to ministers and bureaucrats to express themselves on social media to make government functioning transparent, The FM's comments came at the event to mark second anniversary of myGov app.

His comments at the event to mark second anniversary of my Gov app came against the backdrop of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) recently issuing draft service rules proposing to allow bureaucrats to participate freely on social media websites like Facebook, Twitter and Linked in but criticism of government will still be a no-no.

Social media providers alternate view points, criticisms, comments and suggestions, he said. "Therefore in a transparent government system, I see nothing wrong in civil servants expressing themselves freely, ministers expressing themselves freely."

The draft rules bar officers from making "criticism of government" on television, social media or any other communication application by any means, including a "caricature".