Soon in the footsteps of Shah Faesal, a former IAS officer from Kashmir, who resigned on Jan 9, 2019, for ‘unabated killings’ in Kashmir, another bureaucrat has followed suit. It is now the turn of Kannan Gopinathan, the Secretary of Power, Agriculture and Urban Development department, who resigned on Aug 21 citing the ‘need for freedom of expression back,’ as the reason for quitting his job.
Losing officers from the civil services indeed is a serious concern for the nation and leaving in such a situation does not augur well for the country’s image. Services of many officers in the past months have been terminated on various charges of corruption, misconduct or plain lack of deliverance. These do not make the news, but resignations do.
No change in the status of any state and particular Kashmir can be expected to be without any protest. The extent of protest directly is in proportion to the support provided by countries which have vested interests, Pakistan and China. It gets a boost from the opposition, which concentrates only on pulling the government down and sullying its image in whichever way they can. Then there are terrorists, seditionists and a slanted media. A bureaucrat with faithful obedience to the constitution must act following the guidelines of the government as approved by the Parliament. Good that these officers chose to leave, as staying in and protesting would have been more embarrassing to the nation.
I know a few bureaucrats who had resigned and joined the private sector in the past years. Governments do change, and so does policies. Bureaucrats need not be servants of parties but must be loyal servants of the government and the constitution.
The resignations reveal a slackness in the selection of the elite cadre, perhaps driven by the lack of interest in civil services by the most deserving and the intelligent in the country.
I shudder to think if the tendency percolates to our armed forces, which thankfully is so far insulated from such emotional reactions.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
