New Delhi, Aug 10: Â Bureaucrat-turned-politician Shah Faesal, in his first statement since release said that he does not want to lead ‘Kashmiris down the garden path’.
Speaking to India Today TV Shah Faesal said, “I am ending my short gig with politics. Let the truth be told. I don’t want to take Kashmiris down the garden path.”
He hinted he would start afresh, but did not confirm or deny his re-entry as an administrator. Shah Faesal’s resignation had not been accepted. “There is a new reality in Kashmir and we have to come to terms with it. As a member of IAS, I have been a stakeholder in the future of this nation. I can’t imagine why some people would be anti-India. I can’t be seen as a traitor to a nation that has given me everything in life. I want to move on and start afresh. In whatsoever position that is,” Shah Faesal said.
Shah Faesal said he is taking a day at a time, “Life can’t stop. We have huge challenges of poverty, illiteracy, inequality and unemployment in front of us. I can’t waste my life in chasing illusions when there is so much to be done for the ordinary people. Where will I go next, only time will tell. But as of now, I am sure that I need to move and spread some positivity in my life and in the lives of others.”
Precedents of civil servants rejoining posts
There are precedents of IAS officers quitting the service to pursue their political ambitions and later rejoining their posts.
Sajjad Hussain Mufti, kin of Mehbooba Mufti, had quit the Indian Forest Services in 2014 and later rejoined it in 2018. Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey had quit as an IPS officer five years before his appointment as the top cop.
