Daijiworld Media Network - Shivamogga
Shivamogga, Sep 13: “We welcome difference of opinion,” said minister of tourism, C T Ravi, reacting to the resignation of IAS officers.
Ravi, who visited Sagar near here on Friday, was asked a reaction by the media, regarding IAS officers quitting in retaliation to the policies of the Centre.
“I will not ask the officers to go to Pakistan. Also they should not fear on being sent to jail. Our government will not create an emergency like situation,” Ravi clarified.
C T Ravi’s statement comes after controversial remarks by MP Ananth Kumar Hegde who had called IAS officer Sasikanth Senthil a ‘traitor’ for resigning as deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district. He had also asked Senthil to go to Pakistan and fight directly against India instead of breaking the country internally.
While the resignations are not many, it has become a talking point among civil servants and there is a fear it may set a trend.
In August, G. Kannan, a young officer of the Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre left the service, publicly expressing his reservation and disillusionment with the actions of the government of India in Jammu and Kashmir.
The next resignation was by Karnataka cadre IAS officer S. Sasikanth Senthil who blamed, “fundamental building blocks of diverse democracy on being compromised” as the reason.
The same day, Kashish Mittal, an AGMUT cadre officer posted in the NITI Aayog, resigned for being posted to the Northeast.
The resignations have led to rising political conflicts between the BJP and the Congress. While BJP leaders cited officers who quit were in a ‘cozy relationship’ with the Left, Congress blamed BJP for putting pressure on bureaucrats to leave their jobs.