Srinagar (J&K): Suspended IPS officer Basant Rath on Sunday morning announced his resignation from the service to join electoral politics in Kashmir.
"Politics is a noble profession", Rath wrote on his Twitter handle “KangriCarrier" and on other platforms too. The 2000 batch IPS officer has not mentioned the reason for his sudden move but has claimed that "if I ever join a political party, it WILL be BJP." “...If I ever contest an election, it WILL be from Kashmir. If I ever join politics, it WILL be before March 6, 2024”, Rath wrote on social media before posting his resignation.
In his resignation letter addressed to the Chief Secretary of J&K, he said: “Sir, I wish to resign from the IPS in order to be able to participate in electoral politics. Please consider this letter as my request for resignation/voluntary retirement and process it accordingly”. Rath signed off the letter mentioning the time as 4:20 am on June 25.
Also read: MHA suspends Jammu and Kashmir IPS officer Basant Rath for 'misconduct'
Rath, presently posted in Home Guards and Civil Defence, surprised his followers and friends on Sunday morning when he posted his resignation letter on social media. ETV Bharat approached Rath, originally from Odisha, through calls for a comment but there was no response till the time of publishing this report.
Rath and controversies
In July 2020, Rath was placed under suspension for alleged instances of “gross misconduct and misbehaviour”, according to an order issued by the Home Ministry. He was suspended by the Ministry two weeks after he filed a police complaint against J&K Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh, with whom he was also allegedly involved in a nasty social media tiff.
Rath, a JNU alumnus, is a well-known IPS officer who courted significant goodwill during his posting in Kashmir through an initiative where he distributed free books among students aspiring to take competitive exams. In June 2020, Rath had filed a police complaint with the station house officer at Jammu’s Gandhi Nagar, alleging that Dilbag Singh posed a threat to his safety and reputation. Rath said he was not seeking an FIR, but asked the authorities to take note of his complaint in case something untoward happens to him.
This came after Rath, in several tweets while allegedly employing the moniker “Dilloo” to refer to Singh, took potshots at his senior. Singh subsequently discussed Rath’s misbehaviour on a WhatsApp group called ‘Kashmir Firstpost’, run by a journalist. “Shame on this IPS officer who has risen to become IG and is dumped without any work again because every time he is given responsibility he proves to be a joker and useless. I challenge to prove an inch of land or property or any business worth a penny in my name,” Singh purportedly posted on the group.
A purported screenshot from the group shared by Rath on Twitter featured a call for a “flood of complaints” to be filed against him. This is not the only controversy Rath has been embroiled in. His November 2018 transfer from the post of Inspector General of Police for Traffic in Kashmir to the office of the Commandant General, Home Guards, Jammu, came days after a verbal spat between him and Srinagar mayor and turncoat politician Junaid Mattu.
Interestingly, Rath has become a popular figure among the people of Jammu and Kashmir who highly applaud the officer for his effective regulation of traffic in the Union Territory. He gathered a huge young fanbase in Kashmir after he started shipping out some textbooks and other study material in remote areas of the state for young and underprivileged people. He highly promoted higher studies among the youth and encouraged them to prepare for competitive exams.
