Interacting with the people through Twitter has become a common trend for the Politicians in the recent times. Right from Prime Minister of the country to the Chief Ministers of different states, twitter is being used as the primary communicating platform. But recently, an open letter from a content writer, who worked in the social media cell of Madhya Pradesh (MP) government, has spilled the beans and the revelations have stunned the people around.
Vishwadeep Nag was hired as an English twitter content writer of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in 2015. Initially, he was very happy with his recruitment but later it the experience turned to be a ‘nightmare’ and described his situation similar to that of ‘bonded labourers’. He also accused that he was not given his salary on time and when he asked for extra wages for his overtime, he was terminated.
In an open letter addressed to MP CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan, he wrote:
After working for 25 long years in print media when I was hired in the MP social media cell, it was the happiest moment for me. You held the chair in 2005 and in last 10 years, I have been hearing about sensitive government, transparency in work and lot more. But the company running your social media cell has ruined all your rules and regulations. Since this project is working under you, you should know what wrong is going in the business.
Actually, the entire thing went wrong right from the beginning, i.e., right from the time of my hiring. When I thought to discuss my salary with the person who interviewed me being the head, said I’m not involved in salary fixing procedure. It was for the first time in my professional career when myself was unaware which company I’m getting hired for? I figured out that some other firm is also involved and there must be some dealing of money.
In your social media cell, there are no values given to the human rights. The people are treated so badly as they are just machines. In order to run the cell throughout the day, all the rights of an employee are being murdered brutally. Under such work pressure, I became a blood pressure patient due to which I’m losing vision in my left eye.
Once I was extremely unwell and I was instructed by the doctors to take rest. But the company officials threatened and forced me using your name and compelled me to work amid such a sour health. I would name it human abuse what the company does to earn the profit. Making an employee work for the entire 365 days without paying them a penny is nothing but them worst than ‘bonded labourers’.
He stated that he use to run his family by working as a freelancer but working for continuous 24 hours for CM’s twitter handle had made the livelihood more difficult.
According to media reports, Nag has filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission for the abuse of Human rights he faced while working with MP’s social media cell.
