Six years after stepping down from the Indian Administrative Service, Kannan Gopinathan joined the Congress on Monday.
“One of the brave bureaucrats who has a passion towards the downtrodden and marginalised people of the country and who has always fought for justice and unity,” the Congress’ secretary organisation and MP KC Venugopal said introducing the party’s latest inductee who had resigned as a mark of protest against the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
A 2012 batch IAS officer, Gopinathan was instrumental in initiating several projects big and small in the north-east, especially Aizwal.
“I consider only those people as traitors who know the country is not moving in the right direction but remain silent for their own benefit, greed or survival,” Gopinathan said in his first news conference after joining the grand old party.
“I did not want to become that kind of traitor. Abrogating Article 370 might be a decision of the government. But if you decide to shut down an entire state, jail all journalists, MPs, and former CMs, shut down transportation, communication and the internet, then is it right? ”asked Gopinathan.
The Kerala-born IAS since stepping down from the service has been vocal against repression and suffocation of human rights.
“This is a question not just for me but for all of us. Can this be right in a democratic nation? Shouldn’t voices have been raised against this? I raised that question, and I stand by it even today,” he said.
Before formally joining the Congress, Gopinathan met the party president and leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
“He resigned in 2019, but his resignation has still not been accepted. Bureaucrats who fight for justice and the marginalised are being penalised by the government – this phenomenon is evident in both Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. Even the Chief Justice of India is not immune to these attacks,” said Venugopal.
Along with West Bengal, the Assembly polls in Kerala are scheduled for next year. During the 2018 floods in his home state, Gopinathan had personally carried out relief work without disclosing his identity.
It is likely that he will play a key role in both the state and the centre.