Karnataka IAS officer Sasikanth Senthil quits civil service, says it would be 'unethical' to continue as 'democracy being compromised'

S Sasikanth Senthil, a 2009 batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer and Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district, has resigned from the civil services on Friday citing moral conflict in continuing to serve under the current government. He said it would be ‘unethical’ to continue as a civil servant when “fundamental building blocks of diverse democracy are being compromised”. “The coming days would present extremely difficult challenges in the basic fabric of the Nation. As such it would be better to be outside IAS to continue his work,” Senthil was quoted as saying in  The Hindu.  The Tamil Nadu born IAS officer is an engineer by qualification. He  topped the 2009 UPSC exams and bagged the ninth spot at the national level. He was appointed the  Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada in 2017. [caption id=“attachment_7030371” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Sasikanth Senthil. ANI[/caption] Senthil’s resignation from civil services follow close on the heels of a similar case from neighbouring Kerala where IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan had resigned last month over the Centre’s move to abrogate Article 370. He had said that he resigned over “denial of freedom of expression” to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, claiming that more than the scrapping of special status under Article 370 “the lack of response” to it was upsetting. “None was asking the government. Suddenly we all became part of the government and all of us felt obligated to be part of something historic…. When institutions fail, individuals should stand up. There is no other way,” he said. The 32-year-old officer of 2012 batch, who came into limelight after he hid his identity to join volunteers in relief work during the 2018 Kerala floods, had resigned last month while posted in Daman and Diu as power secretary. The Kerala-born Gopinathan, who submitted resignation on 21 August, had been asked by the government to resume duty and continue to work till his resignation was accepted. His resignation, though, had made no mention of the Kashmir issue. Before this, Shah Faesal , the first Kashmiri to top civil services, had also made headlines after he quit the high paying job in January 2019. Faesal, however, became a full-time politician to ‘continue in public service’ after quitting the bureaucracy. Gopinathan has not ruled out the idea of taking the political plunge but maintains that he is yet to make decisions while Senthil is yet to comment on his future plans. With inputs from agencies