New Delhi:
Former Union minister and BJP’s Uttara Kannada MP Anant Kumar Hegde slammed IAS officer Sashikanth Senthil who resigned from his post saying "fundamental building blocks of democracy are being compromised in an unprecedented manner”. Taking to Twitter, Hegde wrote: “If this guy can conclude that the Union Government is fascist; then we have the liberty to call him another paid #Gaddar, dancing to the tunes set by his real paymasters! This may be the debate he wants to initiate! (sic).”
In another tweet in Kannada, Hegde said that first thing Senthil needs to do is ‘immediately go to Pakistan.’
In an interview to Hindustan Times Senthil had said what is happening in the national scenario pushed me to get out of the services. I feel this reached a crescendo when it came to the abrogation of Article 370.
Karnataka Chief Secretary TM Vijaya Bhaskar had asked Senthil to reconsider his resignation decision. Reacting to this Hegde said, “the state government should realize that it should have sacked him after he opened his polluted mindset against the Union Government. But cajoling this Gaddar to return, amounts to treacherous act against the Nation.”
Senthil had said that it is unethical for him to continue as a civil servant in the government. "The people and the public representatives of DK (Dakshina Kannada) have been extremely kind to me and I owe an apology to them for discontinuing the job vested on me midway,” he said in the letter.
Senthil also said he felt the coming days will present extremely difficult challenges to the basic fabric of the nation and that he will be better off outside the IAS to continue work at making life better for all.
“It simply cannot be business as usual anymore,” he said.
Senthil, who belongs to Tamil Nadu, is a 2009 batch Indian Administrative Service officer. He was made deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada in 2017. He previously served as deputy commissioner in other parts of the state, including Raichur.
The post of deputy commissioner is known as district collector in some other parts of the country.
Last month, another IAS officer, Kannan Gopinathan, resigned from service because of restrictions imposed in Jammu and Kashmir. Gopinathan held the post of secretary of power, urban development and agriculture departments in the Dadra and Nagar Haveli administration.
