The standoff over the reinstatement of suspended IAS official Durga Shakti Nagpal has caused collateral damage, with prominent Dalit writer Kanwal Bharti being arrested in Rampur for a Facebook post criticising the state government. Bharti, who strongly criticised the Uttar Pradesh government over its handling of the issue, was arrested and was is presently out on bail for now. According to a CNN-IBN report, Azam Khan, a senior leader of the Samajwadi Party was miffed by the post written by Bharti. Subsequently, the Samajwadi Party leader aide Shanu Khan filed an FIR in which Bharti was accused of trying to incite communal strife in the region. [caption id=“attachment_1014591” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Screengrab of Kanwal Bharti’s Facebook.[/caption] So what did the offending post say? In his post written on Facebook in Hindi, Bharti said: Akhilesh Yadav’s government has completely failed on the issue of reservation and Durga Shakti Nagpal. Akhilesh, Shivpal, Azam Khan and Mulayam Singh Yadav might pat each other and their government’s back on the Durga Shakti Nagpal issue but they are unable to see the reality in the state. The public is criticising them and mocking them (Bharti used the harsher Hindi phrase thu thu in his original post) and according to the people these four are unfit for democracy. The confidence of criminals is at an all time high while ministers consider themselves to be god. They are themselves writing the chapter that will end their political careers. Power has made them blind and to try and understand such people is futile. (You can view the post here. ) The original post in Hindi is rather damning and uses much stronger words to criticise the UP government and in particular the SP’s top four leaders, a fact that clearly didn’t go down well with Azam Khan. The post however is not abusive and saying that it could cause communal strife is over-stretching the argument. In fact Bharti’s page is now full of reactions all of which are criticising the UP government’s decision to arrest the writer. One comment on the page read, We must speak up and condemn this incident. It is tragic that such highhandedness is coming from the state government against those who are speaking for the rights of Dalit Bahujans. Another commented in Hindi that the arrest of Bharti shows the dictatorial and cowardly practices of Akhilesh’s government.