Omar Abdullah wishes Shah Faesal well, says he will serve same govt that imprisoned him

Former J&K chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah congratulated Shah Faesal on his return to the government service but did not hide the scorn as he said Shah Faesal will now be serving the same government that imprisoned him for 10 months. “Shah Faesal rejoins the IAS after a brief stint as a politician & a 10 month spell as a prisoner of the government he will now serve. I wish him well in his new/old responsibilities,” Omar Abdullah said about his former Gupkar alliance partner.

Shah Faesal had a brief and eventful political career between 2019 and 2020. The first UPSC topper from Jammu and Kashmir is now all set to rejoin the Indian Administrative Service after what he called a period of ‘chasing a chimera’. In 2018, Shah Faesal resigned from the government service and floated his own political party J&K People’s Movement. A day before, Article 370 was revoked, Shah Faesal was taken into custody on August 4, 2019. After six months of preventive detention, Shah Faesal was slapped with the Public Safety Act in 2020.

In 2020, he resigned from the party post and said he was not in a position to continue with political activities, which triggered speculations at that time only that he might rejoin the government service, as it was believed that his resignation was not accepted in the first place.

“As I look back, many words I said, things I did, people I met, causes I stood for and means I adopted were wrong. But then it’s those mistakes that have made me what I am today. I suffered for the choices I made and only suffering can redeem us,” Shah Faesal tweeted on Friday.

“8 months of my life (Jan 2019-Aug 2019) created so much baggage that I was almost finished. While chasing a chimera, I lost almost everything that I had built over the years. Job. Friends. Reputation. Public goodwill. But I never lost hope. My idealism had let me down. But I had faith in myself. That I would undo the mistakes I had made. That life would give me another chance. A part of me is exhausted with the memory of those 8 months and wants to erase that legacy. Much of it is already gone. Time will mop off the rest I believe,” Shah Faesal tweeted on Wednesday making his return to administration official.