Graveyard of reputations

For the past few days Shah Faesal, the former IAS officer, has been at the receiving end of a barrage of social media mélange of praise and ire for his decision to give up bureaucracy. The 2009 IAS topper hit media headlines on Wednesday last week when he announced his resignation from the Indian Administrative Services “in protest against the unabated killings” in Kashmir. Some political and peoples’ sections welcomed it as “voice of conscience”. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Omar Abdullah too were among those who were impressed by Shah Faesal’s decision. Mirwaiz sounded cautious saying “hope his outrage over killings and his sentiment that #KashmiriLivesMatter guide his choice of politics”. But the way Omar Abdullah reacted to Shah’s decisions, it looked that he was already in know of it and he knew about Shah’s future plans as well. He called it “bureaucracy’s loss is gain of politics” and welcomed Shah to the “fold”.

Omar’s reaction was a clear indication that Shah was eyeing to enter mainstream politics after giving up a thriving bureaucratic career. Some later statements of Shah also corroborated the fact that he is contesting upcoming parliamentary election. Profession is a personal choice. Politics is not a forbidden profession. Like any other person, Shah Faesal is free to try his luck in politics. How he is going to pursue this is a matter of time, which he has asked from the people. On Sunday, Faesal asked Kashmir to give him six months and then “judge” him. His post on Facebook read: “People who have seen nothing but betrayals for last seventy years can’t be expected to trust someone easily. In fact I am totally against blind-faith in individuals and uncritical follower-ship. Kashmiris know what agencies can do and again, the agency angle is also totally understood. Kashmiris are not paranoid, Kashmiris are angry and heartbroken. So I won’t ask you to trust me at once. I have given up a lot to be here and at this moment I am not even claiming that I did it for you. Let the time decide who did what and for whom. I want you to give me six months and then judge me. Just six months. Will you?”

Kashmir, being a graveyard of reputations that it is, can, however, afford to give Faesal these six months. Only time will tell that whether the state lost a cut-above-the-rest bureaucrat or gained a politician whose words and deeds are in sync with each other. Only time will tell whether this young blood will bring any positive changes or he, like scores of others, too will be sucked into the political marshland of Kashmir: a space that, for now, involves only mudslinging, desertion and broken promises. Will Shah Faesal be able to inspire the young minds of Kashmir the way he was when he made it to the top rank in exhaustive IAS examination? Or will those youth find themselves on the wrong side of the spectrum once he takes a formal plunge into politics? Only time will tell…