Bengaluru: A government school teacher from Hosadurga area of Chitradurga district has been suspended for a Facebook post critical of Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah’s policies.

The teacher, Shanthamurthy MG, had written an FB post on the Congress’ announcement of freebies before state elections and the promise to fulfil the five guarantees in the first state cabinet meeting. The teacher said the state’s debt rose when Siddharamaiah became CM because of his freebies policies.

“Debt during the tenures of former CM SM Krishna was Rs 3590 crore, Dharam Singh Rs 15, 356 cr, HD Kumaraswamy Rs 3545 cr, BS Yediyurappa Rs 25, 653 cr, DV Sadanand Gowda Rs 9464 cr, Jagadish Shettar Rs 13, 464 cr and Siddaramaiah Rs 2, 42, 000 cr,” said the post.

Upon posting the remarks on Facebook, the teacher received suspension notice for violation of state civil services conduct rules and a departmental enquiry was ordered.

The BJP was quick to question the Congress government in Karnataka for “muzzling dissent.”

“A teacher of a state run lower primary school in Karnataka has been suspended for his FB posts criticising CM Siddaramaiah for his policies. He merely pointed out that the latter could promise so many freebies because the state’s debt always rose when he helmed the Government. Truth hurts?” BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya said.

The suspension was ordered by K Ravishankar Reddy, who said the FB post violated Karnataka Civil Services Conduct Rules 1966.