Faesal, a 2010 batch IAS, had resigned from service in January 2019 and floated his own political party, Jammu & Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM). He had said one of the reasons that provoked him to quit as an IAS officer was “the marginalisation and invisiblisation” of around 200 million Indian Muslims at the hands of Hindutva forces reducing them to second-class citizens.
On Sunday, Shah Faesal had edited his personal details on Twitter, removing the reference to his political affiliations.
Bureaucrat-turned-politician Shah Faesal had formed the J&K People's Movement, while Sartaj Madni and Peer Mansoor are two senior leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) headed by Mehbooba Mufti.
The launch of the new party comes when many prominent leaders of Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, Omar Abdullah, Shah Faesal among others have been put under house arrest and the draconian Public Safety Act.
Kashmiri IAS topper-turned-politician, Shah Faesal was in August last, detained at the Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport when he was about to board a flight to leave the country.
Jammu and Kashmir is above all a major security issue, and not just a military issue. History has recorded the glaring absence of mainstreaming, accepting and/or rejecting the democratic inclusion, as was done in all other disturbed areas. An honest discourse on local issues and perceptions, such as they exist, and without the other eye on the rest of the country, would be a major step forward from the current deadlock. In this background, efforts to 'voice' and mainstream concerns as done by a Shah Faesal or Mehbooba Mufti need to be accepted.
Faesal became the first Kashmiri IAS to resign from the elite service and hinted that he might contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The decision of 2010 IAS topper Shah Faesal to quit the service sent shockwaves in the Valley
What does an angry young Kashmiri IAS officer do after he quits a secure tenured job in the government in protest against “unabated killings’’ in his home state?
In his maiden press conference, the 2009 IAS topper shot down speculations that he was joining National Conference (NC).
