By quitting coveted Indian Administrative Service in the prime, Dr Shah Faesal has taken a hard step which is unprecedented. After burning the midnight oil for years to qualify civil services examination, which majority of the aspirants fail, leaving it must not be an easy decision.
After achieving top rank in the Indian Civil Services Examination in 2009 Dr Shah Faesal proved that nothing is impossible for him and obviously this spirit must have shaped his future plan to join politics. But would the voice of reason, which he wants to add to Kashmir politics, retain its relevance after the elections too is a question to ponder upon.
Shah Faesal resigned from the elite post to jump into mainstream politics in order to articulate the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. He termed his resignation as a protest against the unabated killings and lack of any sincere reach-out from union government. He also puts the marginalization of 200 million Muslims in India at the hands of Hindutva forces and reducing them to second class citizens as another reason for his resignation from civil service to join the politics.
But the question is what next..? If he really wants to change the scenario of mainstream politics from deceptive end to honesty, would he be able to do it? He says he wants to represent Kashmiris while remaining within the ambit of Indian constitution but at the same time he claims that Hurriyat Conference has the main representative character so far as the aspirations of the people of Kashmir are concerned. However, Hurriyat has a stand which goes against the elections which are held under the ambit of Indian constitution. Moreover, If he wants to stop unabated killings, how sure he is that after entering into politics he would succeed in putting a stop to the killings of Kashmiris? He also speaks good about former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mr Omar Abdullah and at the same time, he is against all the past governments for pursuing deceptive politics. He accepts that Hurriyat has a representative character but denies to join them for not being too strong to live a tough life like that of Hurriyat leaders.
He claimed that he knows miseries of Kashmiris well but people of India do not know the core cause of resentment of common people of Kashmir due to improper representation and betrayals by mainstream politicians at centre time and again. He says that he will convey the ground reality to India by talking with five hundred and fifty MPs after winning the election that what the real reason for resentment of people in Kashmir is. He claims that everyone is ready to listen to the truth. But the question is that after listening to the truth would they (Parliamentarians) take necessary measures to end the sufferings of Kashmiris.
Shah Faesal may be having good intentions but its difficult for the people not to nurse suspicions as he remains ambiguous about his future plans as a politician.
One may like to believe an apparently well-meaning and well-qualified person to help bring good governance to the bruised state as compared to those who have only time and again betrayed people to attain power. But as they say once bitten twice shy, much maligned and abused people no longer want to repose trust on anyone blindly as its this blind faith on the leaders of the past which brought them where they are today.
Secondly, the competence of a bureaucrat does not necessarily make him a good politician not to talk of a leader. To wade through the murky waters of Kashmir politics, one needs to possess a magic wand.
Shah Faesal does have a huge fan following on social media and has an access to the maximum number of people there. He may even have won the race in virtual media. But remember when it comes to actual delivery it would be an altogether different ball game.
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