Booked today, jobless tomorrow?
A report quotes Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy telling youth at a Parakala meeting that police cases from protests — and “false facts” on social media — could cost them government jobs. The rule that would do this was not identified.
The government has not identified a rule making a police case an automatic bar to public employment.
According to a report, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy told a Parakala crowd that unemployed youth should stay off protests because if police book cases, “you will be ineligible for the jobs,” and that those sharing “false facts” on social media would face “severe punishment” and be “beaten black and blue.” The Congress government in Telangana has not pointed to a recruitment rule that makes protest participation or a police case an automatic disqualification.
What is on the books: the State and Subordinate Service Rules require candidates’ “character and antecedents” to qualify them for service, and the TGPSC warns of debarment for exam malpractice. Neither is a blanket ban on protesters or a licence to punish criticism online. The Telangana High Court has also recently pushed back on overbroad criminal cases tied to political posts, even quashing one—useful context when warnings morph into threats.
If there is a specific rule disqualifying protesters, the Congress government should publish it in black and white. Until then, telling Telangana’s youth that a booked case equals a career ban reads less like law and more like a deterrent with a microphone. The BJP and TDP prefer that deterrent—fear over jobs—because it costs them nothing and Telangana plenty.