Though people of all shades irrespective of their institutional and administrative affiliations reserve the right to raise questions and concern over the rape culture in any part of the country but attempt to initiate action against a promising officer of an elite service of the country for the fault of raising concerns over rape culture speaks volumes about the non seriousness about the understanding of the current political establishment in Delhi over the rising criminality in the country. The main accusation against Shah faesal reads as “he failed to maintain absolute honesty and integrity in discharge of his official duty” but question can be asked that does the remark of any IAS officer on any act of criminality make him/her dishonest ? In fact the department of personnel and trainings of the central government instead of initiating action against Shah Faesal should have praised him for mustering the courage to voice his concerns over the growing rape culture in different parts of the country. The helmsmen who have initiated action against Shah Faesal must have understood the fact that officers of elite service like IAS particularly those occupying magisterial positions in the district are bound to show concerns on unpardonable crimes like rapes as they are directly connected with the justice delivery system in the country. Taking to micro blogging social networking sites like Facebook and twitter for showing concerns on any growing crime in any part of the country is not a crime but part of a duty for IAS officers who as district or divisional magistrate in their initial years of service have to deal with crimes like rapes . The way of communicating concerns on social networking site is a healthy trend set by Shah Faesal the only Kashmiri to top civil service examination till today. Any attempt to restrict any government official from showing concerns any unpardonable crime is against the spirit of the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed to all people irrespective of their institutional and administrative affiliations. In fact the department of personnel and trainings (DoPT) of the central government itself owes a lot of explanation for its remark that Shah Faesal “failed to maintain absolute honesty and integrity” in discharge of his official duty.
No person in any part of the world would find any scope to contract the remark of Shah Faesal in which he has said that service rules with a colonial spirit should no longer be invoked in modern India.
The conduct of Shah Faesal in discharge of his duty during his last eight years of service career has been exemplary and he is undoubtedly one of those few officers of the Jammu & Kashmir government whose integrity is stated to be above board. Better for the current political establishment in Delhi particularly those holding responsible positions in the department of personnel and trainings (DoPT) should restrain from such counterproductive admonition. No person in any part of the world would find any scope to contract the remark of Shah Faesal in which he has said that service rules with a colonial spirit should no longer be invoked in modern India.
