Shah Faesal
Shah Faesal/ Facebook

Shah Faesal, an IAS officer from Jammu and Kashmir who topped the coveted civil services exam in 2010, has tendered his resignation to make his mark in politics. The 35-year-old is likely to contest from Baramulla constituency in the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Faesal is likely to join Farooq Abdullah-led National Conference. Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also took to Twitter to announce Faesal's entry into politics. He wrote, "The bureaucracy's loss is politics' gain. Welcome to the fold @shahfaesal."

Sources close to Faesal told The Print that resigning from IAS was on his mind for quite some time. He finally decided to leave after returning from his course at Harvard Kennedy School in the US as a Fulbright scholar on January 2.

Faesal released a statement on Wednesday stating that he had resigned from IAS.

The statement read,

To protest against the unabated killings in Kashmir, and lack of any sincere reach-out from the Union Government; the marginalization and invisiblization of around 200 million Indian Muslims at the hands of Hindutva forces reducing them to second-class citizens;

insidious attacks on the special identity of the J&K State and

growing culture of intolerance and hate in the mainland India in the name of hypernationalism,

I have decided to resign from Indian Administrative Service.

I wish to remind the regime of the day that subversion of public institutions like RBI, CBI and NIA has the potential to decimate the Constitutional edifice of this Country and it needs to be stopped. I wish to reiterate that voices of reason in this country cannot be muzzled for long and the environment of siege will need to end if we wish to usher in true democracy.

I am thankful to my family, friends and well-wishers for supporting me in this amazing journey in IAS. One of my important tasks here-after will be train and guide aspiring civil servants to help them in achieving this dream.

I will be addressing a press conference on Friday to share my future plans.

I will look forward to your support and blessings in this new mission.

Faesal is no stranger to controversies. In July 2018, the Jammu and Kashmir government had issued a show-cause notice over a tweet in which he referred to South Asia as 'rapistan'.

"Love letter from my boss for my sarcastic tweet against rape-culture in South Asia," Faesal had written while sharing the show-cause notice.

How do you resign from IAS?

According to the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, the officer should first submit his letter of resignation to the concerned chief secretary. If they are part of the central deputation, they will have to tender the resignation to the secretary of the concerned department.

The ministry or the department concerned will then forward the resignation to the state cadre.

The state cadre will then review if there are any outstanding loans or dues against the concerned officer and will also check the officer's vigilance status. The state cadre will then forward the resignation with their recommendation.

The resignation may not be accepted if the officer is undergoing a period of suspension and a disciplinary case is pending against the concerned officer.

Here's how social media users are reacting to the development: