Former IAS officer Shah Faesal is likely to be appointed as an advisor to J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.
The proposed appointment comes after Shah Faesal converted from being a virulent anti-BJP critic to a vocal advocate for Narendra Modi’s brand of governance.
In 2020, Shah Faesal was detained under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) for his “anti-government” social media posts and an alliance with former legislator, engineer Shiekh Abdul Rashid—arrested in a terror funding case–among reasons cited in a government dossier.
Shah Faesal had in 2020 stepped down as the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement (JKPM), a political party he had founded with comrade Shehla Rashid. Since then, his future has been the subject of much speculation, with many believing that he could return to the administrative services.
More recently, he has been trolled by Kashmiris for praising Narendra Modi. Applauding the Prime Minister’s ‘Mann ki Baat’ in January, Faesal had said, “It is like 1.3 Billion people coming together as a family on a Sunday morning and each one being heard and spoken to, each one feeling counted.” He further added, “My take away from this program: Communication can build solidarities and make a nation ‘sound’ like a family.”
