Former IAS officer Shah Faesal, who had launched a crowdfunding campaign for “clean politics and corruption-free administration” in Jammu and Kashmir, said that his appeal got an overwhelming response, reported NDTV.
Faesal said on Thursday, 24 January, that he has received funds ranging from Rs 2 to Rs 50,000. He added that he won’t accept foreign funds and will make the donations public.
Faesal – who was the first Kashmiri to top the UPSC civil services exam – also told the channel that the sentiment behind crowdfunding was to involve youngsters in active politics.
“Initially the thought was, I will be just fighting Parliament elections but it's generating into a sort of public movement. The response to crowdfunding is phenomenal,” he said.
Narrating an incident, Faesal said that somebody had donated earrings and deposited the money.
The 2010-batch topper, who had resigned from the services earlier this month, gave a bank account number for contributions and said payments could also be made through e-wallet.
"Be a part of this journey for clean politics and corruption-free administration in J&K. Support Shah Faesal with your small donations," he had tweeted.
He had said that his resignation was to protest against "unabated killings in Kashmir, and lack of any sincere reach-out from the Union government; the marginalisation of around 200 million Indian Muslims at the hands of Hindutva forces reducing them to second-class citizens; insidious attacks on the special identity of J&K and growing culture of intolerance and hate in mainland India in the name of hypernationalism.”
While he has made it clear that he would like to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Faesal has not joined any political party so far.
Speculation is rife that he might float a new political outfit.
(With inputs from PTI and NDTV)
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