Ex-bureaucrat comes out with all guns blazing at Mumbai event

MUMBAI: "It will be a privilege for me to go to jail, considering the present scenario of the country," said former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan on Thursday.

The bureaucrat-turnedactivist was in Mumbai to speak at the event, 'Will 2020 be a defining year in history of India?' Gopinathan claimed to have travelled across 70 districts in 19 states of the country in the last 100 days, campaigning against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act.

"2020 will be remembered as one of the remarkable years in Indian politics, as people have taken to the streets," he said. "Shaheen Bagh is an example that people are now protesting in large numbers. When I resigned from the IAS, I was quite delusional but now, seeing the countrywide protests, I am optimistic we are headed in the right direction," he said. Gopinathan was serving as an IAS officer until he resigned from service protesting against the restrictions imposed in Jammu and Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370. He has been in the news for voicing his sentiments against the Centre. He said the government has no clarity over the imposition of the contentious acts. He further said, the government's failure to act after the attacks at Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Jamia Millia University clearly showed its incompetence. "The democracy of a country is at threat when students are attacked. It's been a while since the attacks but neither the PM nor the HM have condemned it yet," he said.

-Staff reporter