Yet another Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, S Sasikanth Senthil, who was the deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka, resigned from his post on Friday, saying he could no longer continue in office when the “fundamental building blocks of democracy are being compromised in an unprecedented manner.” A 2009 batch officer, he has become the second IAS officer to resign within a span of a month. Senthil’s resignation comes shortly after Kannan Gopinathan, another IAS officer, resigned last month after he felt strongly against the restrictions placed on the people of Jammu & Kashmir before and after Article 370 was revoked from the erstwhile state. Interestingly, as per their service records, both these officers are believed to have performed quite well.
Their resignation to protest the current scenario shows that there are people who are deeply worried about the direction in which this country is going. In the last five years India has gone through a traumatic period. Religious hatred and violence against minorities are growing day by day. Today, the minorities do not feel safe anymore. This deep division of people is threatening the basic essence of India. The ruling regime seems more worried its religious issues than the country’s development. The economy is in a terrible shape and the people are losing jobs. But the government of the day seems least bothered, and is following the singular agenda of religious nationalism. Disrespect for institutions like the parliament, the judiciary, the CBI, etc, is also growing. The constitution itself is facing threat. It’s time more people like Sasikanth Senthil and Kannan Gopinathan came out in the open and protested against the wrongdoings of the regime. History will remember these people for making immense sacrifice for the greater cause of the nation.