Initiate action against IAS topper Shah Faesal for 'Rapistan' tweet: Centre to J&K
Srinagar: The Centre has asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to initiate action against 2009 IAS topper Shah Faesal for violating the service rules through a series of tweets including one against “rape-culture” in India.
The General Administration Department of the J&K government has flashed a letter to Faesal informing him that the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India, has sought departmental action against him for his twitter handle carries “contents prima-face in contravention of the extant provisions of the All India Service (Conduct Rules) 1968 and All Indian Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules 1969”.
The show cause letter says that Faesal has allegedly failed to maintain absolute honesty and integrity in discharge of his official duty and thus, acted in a manner unbecoming of a public servant.
Faesal had in a tweet earlier this year said, “Patriarchy+Population+Illiteracy+ Alcohol+Porn+Technology+Anarchy=Rapistan!”
Love letter from my boss for my sarcastic tweet against rape-culture in South Asia.
— Shah Faesal (@shahfaesal) July 10, 2018
The Irony here is that service rules with a colonial spirit are invoked in a democratic India to stifle the freedom of conscience.
I'm sharing this to underscore the need for a rule change. pic.twitter.com/ssT8HIKhIK
On another occasion, with a link of a newspaper story about the arrest of an alleged porn addict in Gujarat accused of raping a 46-year-old mother he wrote on his twitter handle @shahfaesal “Difference between theory and practice”.
The 35-year-old IAS officer was projected by the then government at the Centre as the role model for the youth of J&K when he in 2009 became the first Kashmiri to top the Indian Civil Service Examination and first Kashmiri Muslim in several years to be selected to the IAS through open merit.
Faesal, who served as Managing Director J&K State Power Development Corporation before going on study leave abroad recently while making the letter public through a tweet wrote on micro-blogging site, “Love letter from my boss for my sarcastic tweet against rape-culture in South Asia. The Irony here is that service rules with a colonial spirit are invoked in a democratic India to stifle the freedom of conscience. I'm sharing this to underscore the need for a rule.”
In a reply to his own tweet, he said, “Democracy without a sense of humour:)”
Former Chief Minister and vice president of National Conference (NC) Omar Abdullah, while reacting to the development, tweeted, “Looks like DoPT is determined to chase @shahfaesal out of the civil services. The last line of this page is shocking & unacceptable where they question Faesal’s “integrity & honesty”. How is a sarcastic tweet dishonest? How does it make him corrupt?”
