Kannan Gopinathan is currently in the news for being an officer of the Indian Administrative Service from Kerala and quitting his job in order to be able to speak freely on the Kashmir situation.
He feels that a virtual state of ‘Emergency’ has been imposed on the people of the erstwhile state. The ending of the special constitutional state, Kannan argues has really worsened matters for the ordinary men and women of the Valley.
Kannan Gopinath earlier came into the limelight for his anonymous participation in the flood relief efforts during the Kerala floods last year.
He had been serving as the secretary of power, urban development and town and country planning departments of the union territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
He submitted his resignation on August 21. Kannan Gopinathan felt that his post barred him from speaking freely on the injustices being perpetrated on the people of Jammu and Kashmir and therefore he decided that it was best to quit and regain his freedom.
Mr. Gopinathan stated, “Over the past few days, I have been really perturbed by what is happening in the country, wherein a large section of our population have had their fundamental rights suspended.There has been lack of response to it. We seem to be perfectly fine with it. I also see in some small ways how I am part of it.
I think if I had a newspaper, the only thing I would be printing on the front page would be ’19’, because today is the nineteenth day.”
Gopinath also expressed concern over the fact that people came into the Civil Services thinking that they would become the voice of the people, but that very voice is taken away from them. He asserted that the developments in the erstwhile state had disturbed him enough and he had thought that it was best to resign.
His unhappiness and disagreement with the way in which the present administration was functioning is said to be one of the main reasons for his resignation.
