A Kashmiri IAS officer Shah Faesal who topped the UPSC exam in 2010, resigned as a civil services officer to protest against killings and marginalization of Muslims in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Faesal announced his decision on a Facebook post, there are speculations about him joining Omar Abdullah’s party, the National Conference. Reports also suggest that he may be given a Lok Sabha ticket from the North Baramulla constituency.
He was the first Kashmiri to top the exam, and rose to fame for this achievement. Faesal chose the Kashmir cadre and served in many state departments. Last year, Faesal went to the Harvard University in US for a year long program on public policy.
This is what Faesal wrote on his facebook post —
To protest against the unabated killings in Kashmir, and lack of any sincere reach-out from the Union Government;
the marginalization and invisibilization 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.
I wish 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.
I am thankful to my family, friends and well-wishers for supporting me in this amazing journey in IAS. 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.
(The Pigeon Express Opinion – His public resignation statement has targeted the central government, more so the ruling BJP and the prime minister of India. This definitely is a political message and his intentions would be clearer on the press meet tomorrow.)