New Delhi, Sept 12, 2020: M Nageswara Rao, a former interim chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation, has stirred up a hornet’s nest with his tweet that called Swami Agnivesh’s death as “good riddance.”

Agnivesh, an Arya Samaj leader who championed the rights of bonded laborers, died September 11 in New Delhi at the age of 81. He was undergoing treatment for liver damage at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences and died of multi-organ failure. Always clad in saffron, Agnivesh rejected idol worship as an avid follower of Arya Samaj principles. But he became famous for his work to free bonded laborers.

Calling Agnivesh “anti-Hindu,” Rao tweeted that the Hindu reformer had done “enormous damage” to Hinduism. “Good Riddance Swami Agnivesh. You were an anti-Hindu donning saffron clothes. You did enormous damage to Hinduism. I am ashamed that you were born as a Telugu Brahmin. My grievance against Yamaraj is why did he wait this long!” he said.

Many on Twitter called out Rao for spreading “hate” and for misrepresenting Hinduism.

Activist Rahul Easwar reacted to Rao’s tweet saying: “May Bhagwan Krishna save #Hindu & #Hindustan from #Hate Virus.”

Historian Irfan Habib called out Rao and questioned what he would have done “as a police officer.”

Many others such as lawyer Navdeep Singh pointed out that he was serving in the government until recently, “with such thoughts at the back of his mind”.

However, despite the backlash, Rao insisted that he wasn’t wrong. “Sorry. You’re wrong. Nothing goes with death. Deeds outlives doer. As we praise good & good doer, likewise evil & evil doer have to condemned. We read Ramayan to praise good of Rama & to condemn bad of Ravana. Many Hindu festivals are celebration of death demons.”

This, however, is not the first time Rao has been in the eye of storm for his tweets.

In July this year, Rao had tweeted a series of graphics on the “story of Project Abrahamisation of Hindu Civilisation”.

Many retired IPS officers had slammed Rao for his comments at the time. The Indian Police Foundation, a multidisciplinary think-tank based in Delhi, said Rao “desecrated” the police uniform and “embarrassed” the government with the tweet.

Rao, a 1986-batch IPS officer, was shunted out as CBI’s additional director in July 2019 after spending one year in that post. He was then appointed as the General (DG) Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guard, the tenure of which ended in July this year.

Rao was made the interim CBI chief in 2018 amid a spat between then Director General Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana.

Prior to that, Rao had a controversial career with several complaints of financial irregularities, influencing investigations and scuttling probes against him.

Rao has been accused of financial irregularities right from his time as the chief of fire service directorate in Bhubaneswar in 2016.

Some of the complaints against him included scuttling and influencing investigations within the CBI, misappropriation of funds while in office and his wife’s involvement in a shell company.

Source: theprint.in and indianexpressa.com