(THE NEWSMAN OF INDIA.COM)
Bengaluru: A Deputy Commissioner in Karnataka, S Sasikanth Senthil, quit the IAS or Indian Administrative Service on Friday, saying in a letter that the “fundamental building blocks of democracy are being compromised in an unprecedented manner”. He was the Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner.
“It simply cannot be business as usual anymore,” writes the bureaucrat, apologising to the people for “discontinuing the job”.

S Senthil said it was a personal decision, but in the letter, he writes that it is “unethical” for him to continue as a civil servant in the government when the “fundamental building blocks of democracy are being compromised in an unprecedented manner.

The resignation, he asserted, was “not in any way” connected to any event or a particular person.

“I also feel strongly that the coming days will present extremely difficult challenges to the basic fabric of our nation and that I would be better off outside the IAS to continue with my work at making life better for all,” he writes.

S Senthil, a 2009 batch Karnataka cadre officer, had taken charge in Dakshina Kannda two years ago.

His resignation comes days after a 2012 batch officer, Kannan Gopinathan, also an IAS, resigned from the Dadra and Nagar Haveli administration. The 33-year-old bureaucrat quit on August 21 to protest what he claimed was the denial of fundamental rights to lakhs of people in Jammu and Kashmir.

Gopinathan has rejected the centre’s claim that the security restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir were meant to prevent deaths due to violent reprisals, saying that life holds no meaning to a human being without the right to liberty.

“Life and liberty go together, and that’s the beauty of a constitutional democracy. If they say that they will put you in jail to save your life, would that be acceptable to you? You can argue something like that for a certain period, yes, but this has been going on for three weeks now,” he told to media in a chat.