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Kannan Gopinathan, who resigned from IAS over Art 370 abrogation, joins Congress
Kannan Gopinathan said the direction the govt taking the country was not right and only the Congress can take the country in a positive direction
Kochi: Kannan Gopinathan, who resigned from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 2019 as a mark of protest against the Union government’s decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370, joined the Congress party on Monday.
Gopinathan, a native of Kerala, was welcomed into the party by Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal and media wing chairman Pawan Khera at the party headquarters in Delhi.
Venugopal termed Gopinathan a “brave bureaucrat who is passionate about the lives of the downtrodden and marginalised people of the country”.
“His joining of the Congress is a clear proof that our party is the only one fighting for justice in India. Bureaucrats these days, who are fighting for the marginalised, are being penalised by the system, whether it’s in Haryana or Madhya Pradesh. Even the Chief Justice of India (CJI) is not spared. It is time to fight against this divisive agenda,” said Venugopal.
Gopinathan, a 2012 Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territories (AGMUT)-cadre officer, said he was clear in his mind in 2019 that the direction in which the Union government was taking the country was not right.
“I was sure that I wanted to raise my voice against injustice. But what was the alternative? I needed clarity. I travelled through 80-90 districts and spoke to many leaders. Through such travels and interactions, I realised that only the Congress can take the country in a positive direction,” said the bureaucrat.
“It took some time because I had to go through my journey. But I know that my thoughts align with the principles of the Congress. In whatever way I can strengthen the Congress, I will do so,” he added.
He said that while a decision to revoke Article 370 in J&K can be a political decision taken by a government, his objection lay in how the government suppressed the press, shut down the state and jailed opposition political leaders.
“The state’s transportation, internet and telephone lines were shut down. Leaders including former CMs were jailed. Was that right in a democratic country? Shouldn’t we have raised our voices against it? I raised that question then and I continue to stick by it,” Gopinathan said.
Gopinathan had grabbed headlines in 2018 for volunteering during the Kerala floods. He was a prominent voice against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in 2019.
He said his resignation had not been accepted till date.
