Shah Faesal to launch his own party in Kashmir

Former IAS officer Shah Faesal, who resigned from the service earlier this year, will launch his own party “Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement” at a function in Srinagar on Sunday.

According to the invitation card circulated on social media, the function will be held at ‘Gindun Ground’ in posh Rajbagh area of the city at 11 am.

The 2010 batch UPSC topper resigned from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) on January 9 this year to protest “unabated killings, absence of credible political initiative from Delhi,” and “rise of Hindutva forces.”

He had also lashed out at the Centre, accusing it of subverting public institutions like Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

His outspokenness on social media and criticism of the government from the last two years led to several run-ins with the Centre. On April 22 last year, Faesal took to Twitter to share his thoughts on rape culture in India.

“Patriarchy+Population+Illiteracy+Alcohol+Porn+Technology+Anarchy = Rapistan! (sic),” he tweeted.

After a show cause notice from the Center, the outspoken bureaucrat wrote another post: "The irony here is that service rules with a colonial spirit are invoked in a democratic India to stifle the freedom of conscience.”

Earlier in March 2017, Faesal, who comes from a remote village of frontier northern Kupwara district, made sarcastic remarks on government jobs and also on the political situation in the Valley. He called a government job “slavery of mind, eyes, tongue, hands and feet.”

Since resigning from the service, the former bureaucrat has been interacting with young achievers with an aim of getting them to support his initiative for "corruption-free, clean and transparent" politics in the state.