Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday defended Shah Faesal, the IAS officer who faces disciplinary action for his posts on social media. The 2010 Indian Administrative Service exam topper was served notice by the state administration department after the Department of Personnel and Trainings (DoPT) asked the state to initiate action against Faesal. The IAS officer is presently in the US pursuing a post-graduate course at the Harvard University.
As per the rules quoted by the DoPT a government servant is not permitted to criticize the government, while the officer has been frankly voicing his views on various social issues in the country.
Coming out in defence of the officer, Omar Abdullah tweeted: “I see this notice as a case of bureaucratic over-enthusiasm where people who are pushing the files at the top do not understand the spirit of the times we are living in. “You have no problem when officers from Rajasthan and elsewhere defy ‘set norms of governance and conduct’, yet Faesal’s tweet about rape bothers you. Somehow this does not surprise me at all! Looks like the DoPT is determined to chase @shahfaesal out of the civil services. The last line of this page is shocking and unacceptable where they question Faesal’s ‘integrity and honesty’. How is a sarcastic tweet dishonest? How does it make him corrupt?”