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Kannan Gopinathan, the 2012 batch AGMUT cadre IAS officer, who resigned from India's top administrative service last month citing the clampdown on freedom of expression in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370, addressed an event in Hyderabad on Thursday.
"I haven't resigned because of the abrogation of Article 370, but for what we did after that. We just shut them up, and simply told them you don't have a voice; you can't express whether you're angry or happy, whether you are upset or in anguish," Kannnan Gopinathan told a crowd at Lamakaan.
In the interactive session with people from different walks of life, Kannan said that dissent was essential to democracy, and strengthens it.
Kannan argued that it is important to acknowledge the fact that there is a difference between the government and the country or nation, adding that criticising the former doesn't make one anti-national.
He said, "Government has the right to take decisions and people have the right to protest them. This will exist in a democracy."
He further added that not questioning the government enough would cause the whole democratic setup to collapse eventually.
Kannan, an engineer-turned-bureaucrat, is on a country-wide tour following his resignation from service and feels that true 'national integrity' would happen on the day people from other states stand up for the Kashmiris when they're feeling oppressed.
Kannan said there is a vicious trend of name-calling and character assassination when one doesn't share their views.
Pointing to the narrative around the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, Kannan said, "Firstly, we are stripping off citizenship on one side, and not considering an entire state of people as citizens on the other hand. That is dangerous to the country."
He also stated that it is necessary in a democracy for individuals to stand up when institutions are failing.