CHENNAI: When institutions fail, individuals have to stand up, said Kannan Gopinathan, a former IAS officer, who recently quit the service against communication blackout in Jammu and Kashmir, on Wednesday.
“It has been 30 days since article 370 was abrogated and communication has still not been restored. Kashmiris have the right to disagree with the decision, and they have been denied the right to dissent,” he said speaking at a discussion organised by Young People for Politics, here.
Gopinathan is a 2012-batch IAS officer hailing from Kerala. He submitted his resignation to the Dadra and Nagar Haveli administration on August 23.
The government, in this case has “infantalised” Jammu and Kashmir, Gopinathan said explaining, “Like administering medicine to a child who does not want it, the government can take some constitutional and legal decisions that might be good for the public. However, by blacking out communication, we have denied Kashmir the right to react to that pain. You cannot prevent a child from crying after administering an injection. That is unacceptable and that is what is happening now,” he said.
He said setting up a Union Territory will further weaken democracy in the region. Gopinathan said while he does not have a firm opinion on the repealing of Article 370 itself, he opined that the way it was done was definitely upsetting.