2009 IAS topper Shah Faesal quits bureaucracy, to join politics, Omar welcomes

‘I resigned to protest against unabated killings, Kashmiri lives matter’: Faesal

‘I resigned to protest against unabated killings, Kashmiri lives matter’: Faesal

Srinagar, Jan 09 (KNS): A top Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from Jammu and Kashmir, Shah Faesal on Wednesday resigned from the country’s elite service.
Reports said Faesal has sent a letter, seeking volunteer retirement from country elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS) to Department of Personnel & Trainings (DoPT).
“For acceptance of the voluntarily retirement it takes some time for routine processing till its acceptance by the competent authority,” reports said.
Meanwhile, National Conference Vice President and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah welcomed Shah Faesal for quitting bureaucracy and tending to join politics.
“The bureaucracy’s loss is politics’ gain. Welcome to the fold @shahfaesal,” Omar tweeted.
Faesal has just returned to India from a stint as a Fulbright fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. He topped 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. Criticizing the rape culture in the region, Faesal had referred to south Asia as “Rapistan”.
Confirming his resignation, the top IAS officer wrote a detailed statement on his Facebook page and claimed that he resigned to mark a protest against the “unabated killings” in Kashmir, and absence of any credible political initiative from Union Government, saying the lives of Kashmiris matter.
“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 hyper nationalism, I have decided to resign from Indian Administrative Service,” he said.
“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,” he said.
“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,” Shah said. (KNS) 

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