BJP takes jibe at upright IAS officers, who quit protesting Modi govt’s policies

New Delhi, Sept 8: The BJP on Sunday took a jibe at the IAS officers who recently resigned from their posts citing the shrinking space for "dissent and debate" in the country as the reason while accusing them of sharing a "cozy relationship" with the Left.

"Three IAS Officers resigned from their positions just because a thought process other than that they were infected with moves on in the country with a full mandate. Imagine the intolerance of Left, a liberal ecosystem with whom they share a cozy relationship. Nation understands you perfectly," BJP General Secretary (Organisation) B L Santhosh said in a tweet.

Last month, G Kannan, a 2012-Batch IAS officer from the AGMUT cadre, resigned from the service. Just days later, another IAS officer, Sasikanth Senthil of the Karnataka cadre, resigned.

In January, IAS officer Shah Faesal had resigned to protest the "unabated" killings in Kashmir and the marginalisation of Indian Muslims. He later formed a political party.

Kanan and Senthil had resigned citing similar reasons as they claimed that the space for dissent and debate was shrinking in the country.

Both of them have not yet announced their future course of action.

Kannan had said he was "disillusioned" after the crisis in Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

In a strongly-worded note, Senthil, a 2009-batch officer, said it was "unethical" to continue as an IAS officer when "fundamental building blocks of diverse democracy are being compromised".

Senthil, a 2009 batch Indian Administrative Service officer, is the second, after Kanan, to announce his decision to exit the bureaucracy over the last month.

An engineering graduate from Tamil Nadu, Senthil was posted as the deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district.

Santhosh, recently appointed to his post, has worked as BJP's General Secretary (Organisation) for eight years in the party's Karnataka unit and was in-charge of southern states in 2014 by Amit Shah. He was involved in the growth of the party in Tamil Nadu and Kerala besides Karnataka.