SRINAGAR: The 2009 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) topper from Jammu and Kashmir, Shah Faesal on Wednesday resigned to protest against the “unabated killings and lack of political outreach from New Delhi”.
Faesal took to Twitter to announce his resignation. “To protest the unabated killings in Kashmir and absence of any credible political initiative from Union Government, I have decided to resign from IAS. Kashmiri lives matter,” he wrote.
https://twitter.com/shahfaesal/status/1082938765918785536
Also, in a post on his Facebook account Faesal said, “To protest against the unabated killings in Kashmir, and lack of any sincere reach-out from the Union Government; the marginalization and invisiblization of around 200 million Indian Muslims at the hands of Hindutva forces reducing them to second-class citizens; insidious attacks on the special identity of the J&K State and growing culture of intolerance and hate in the mainland India in the name of hypernationalism, I have decided to resign from Indian Administrative Service.”
Faesal said he wished to remind the regime of the day that subversion of public institutions like RBI, CBI and NIA has the potential to decimate the Constitutional edifice of this Country and it needs to be stopped.
“I wish to reiterate that voices of reason in this country cannot be muzzled for long and the environment of siege will need to end if we wish to usher in true democracy,” he said his Facebook post.
Thanking his family, friends and other well-wishers for supporting him in his IAs journey, he said one of “my important tasks here-after will be train and guide aspiring civil servants to help them in achieving this dream.”
“I will be addressing a press conference on Friday to share my future plans. I will look forward to your support and blessings in this new mission,” he added.
Faesal has recently returned to India from a stint as a Fulbright fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Faesal cleared the civil services exam in 2009, becoming the first Kashmiri to top the test. After joining the IAS, he was appointed director of school education in the Kashmir Valley.
Last year, inquiry was launched against him for a remark on rampant rapes in south Asia. Criticising the rape culture in the region, Faesal had referred to south Asia as “Rapistan”.
National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah welcomed the resignation of IAS topper Shah Faesal by calling it as a “loss to bureaucracy and gain to politics”
“The bureaucracy’s loss is politics’ gain. Welcome to the fold @shahfaesal,” Omar wrote on Twitter as reports of Faesal’s resigned started doing the rounds.
“Actually I welcomed him to the fold of politicians. His future political plans are his to announce,” Omar said in another tweet, while responding to reports that Faesal was likely to join National Conference.
