Is ex-IAS officer Shah Faesal returning to government service?

PTI, Apr 28, 2022, 9:47 AM IST

Former IAS officer Shah Faesal, who was the first UPSC topper from Jammu and Kashmir, on Wednesday dropped hints about his return to government service in some form.

In a series of tweets, Faisal spoke about his idealism letting him down in 2019 when he resigned from government service to join politics.

“Eight months of my life (Jan 2019-Aug 2019) created so much baggage that I was almost finished. While chasing a chimera, I lost almost everything that I had built over the years. Job. Friends. Reputation. Public goodwill. But I never lost hope. My idealism had let me down,” he tweeted.

“But I had faith in myself. That I would undo the mistakes I had made. That life would give me another chance. A part of me is exhausted with the memory of those 8 months and wants to erase that legacy. Much of it is already gone. Time will mop off the rest In believe,” he added.

Although Faesal did not spell out what he meant by “another chance”, speculation has been rife here over the past one year that he might return to government service either as an IAS officer or in some advisory role to the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

“Just thought of sharing that life is beautiful. It is always worth giving ourselves another chance. Setbacks make us stronger. And there is an amazing world beyond the shadows of the past. I turn 39 next month. And I’m really excited to start all over again,” he wrote.

There was an outpouring of support for Faesal from his friends and former Civil services colleagues.

Faesal, who topped the UPSC examination in 2009, resigned from service in January 2019, citing “rising intolerance” in the country.

He floated his own political party — Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement — in March that year and had plans to contest assembly elections which were to be held.

He was arrested in the wake of abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in August that year.

However, after his release, Faesal gave up on politics and started dropping hints of making a coming back.

He has been an ardent supporter, on the social media, of the present government’s policies. Faesal has been often sharing speeches of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah on his Twitter handle.