Respect Gautam Adani for refusing to let adversity get better of him, says J&K IAS officer Shah Faesal

IAS Officer Shah Faesal tweeted in support of embattled Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, saying that he respects the business tycoon for refusing to let adversity get the better of him.

"I respect @gautam_adani for the way he has refused to let adversity get the better of him. I know him as a great human being who is deeply respectful of diversity in the society and wants to see India on the top. I wish him the best as he and his family face this trial by fire," he said in a tweet on February 7.



Adani has come under fire in recent weeks after US-based short-seller Hindenburg in a report alleged corporate fraud. Since then, the opposition has called for a JPC in the Parliament.

Faesal, who submitted his resignation in January 2019 and floated the Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement (JKPM) party, was detained under the stringent Public Safety Act immediately after the abrogation of special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

However, after his release, Faesal gave up on politics and started dropping hints of his willingness to rejoin government service. His resignation had not been accepted.

The doctor-turned-bureaucrat formed his party to "revive democratic politics" in Jammu and Kashmir but his political career ended abruptly.

Hailing from the remote village of Lolab in north Kashmir, Faesal, whose father was killed by terrorists in 2002, had topped the UPSC examination in 2009. He was detained at Delhi airport on the intervening night of August 14-15, 2019, and sent back to Srinagar and placed under detention. He was booked under the draconian Public Safety Act in February 2020 which was revoked four months later.

Faesal, who was the first UPSC topper from Jammu and Kashmir, had on Wednesday dropped hints about his return to the government service.

In a series of tweets, he spoke about his idealism letting him down in 2019 when he resigned from the government service to join politics.

"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," he said.

"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 in believe," he added.

Though Faesal did not spell out what he meant by "another chance", speculation has been rife here over the past one year that he might return to the government service either as an IAS officer or in some advisory role to the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.