‘Please accept mine’: Gopinathan takes a dig at PM Modi over his IAS resignation pending for nod since 2019

41-yr-old Gopinathan from Kerala, who resigned from IAS in 2019 and joined Congress last year, said, “No salary, no suspension, nothing. Just sitting on it.”

Kannan Gopinathan, the IAS officer who resigned in 2019 citing an inability to express his opinion while in government service, has made a fresh request to Prime Minister Narendra Modi — and with it, taken a series of digs too.

“Dear PM Narendra Modi, now that you have started accepting resignations, please accept mine. It’s been 7 years!!” the 41-year-old from Kerala, who joined the Congress last year, wrote on X, apparently citing the recent resignation of senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan as education minister after weeks of Gen-Z protests sparked by the Cockroach Janta Party.

Gopinathan belongs to the 2012 batch of IAS in the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre.

On his X post, when a user asked him if the government was paying him salary since his job remains, Gopinathan replied, “Nope. No salary, no suspension, nothing. Just sitting on it. Just like on every other issue.”

Another made a joke, “Post it on Instagram maybe.” PM Modi has lately been focusing on Instagram, considered the more popular social media platform among younger people, as the CJP movement gathered pace.

To this, Gopinathan replied with another dig at Modi: “Setting up the camera angle… getting new teleprompter.” Promptly came another reply: “But first get your make up artist and costumes ready please.” Gopinathan struck again: “They all resigned.”

Gopinathan has over the years said he resigned as to the Modi government's action to “shut down” Jammu and Kashmir following the hollowing-out of Article 370 in 2019.

“Abrogating Article 370 might be a decision of the Government. But if you decide to shut down an entire state, jail all journalists, MPs and former CMs, shut down transportation, communication and internet, then is it right? This is a question not just for me but for all of us. Can this be right in a democratic nation? Should voices not have been raised against this? I raised that question, and I stand by it even today,” he said late last year at the event where he joined the Congress.

Gopinathan had grabbed headlines in 2018 for volunteering during the Kerala floods. He was a prominent voice against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in 2019.

The central government effectively repealed Article 370 of the Indian Constitution in August 2019, ending the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories, J&K and Ladakh. Restoration of statehood remains a key demand from the regional political parties in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation.

What about the resignation?

On Gopinathan's resignation, there is no final word from the government. Reports in The Indian Express and other publications earlier this year cited unnamed sources to say the final recommendation on Gopinath’s resignation was yet to be sent to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) that's overseen directly by the PM, hence it remained pending before the Ministry of Home Affairs led by Amit Shah.

Gopinathan said in October 2025, “Two months after I resigned, the government initiated proceedings against me for ‘dereliction of duty’ and for speaking critically about the government to the media… But it has been two-three years since that case was closed too. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) communicated to me that I had criticised the government while technically still being in the government, and therefore, my pay scale would be reduced. But I have not been receiving a salary, so what pay scale will be reduced?”

He mentioned that others who quit had got their acceptances. For instance, the resignation of his former colleague, who also left the IAS in 2019, Sasikanth Senthil, was accepted in 2022. Senthil had also cited his disillusionment with the state of the Indian democracy under the Modi government; and currently serves as a Congress MP representing the Tiruvallur constituency in Tamil Nadu.

Ambiguity: Shah Faesal and Annamalai's cases

A case underlining ambiguity in government conduct is that of Jammu and Kashmir-cadre IAS officer Shah Faesal.

He had also quit service in 2019, protesting “unabated killings in Kashmir” and the “marginalisation of Indian Muslims at the hands of Hindutva forces”, ThePrint noted in a report. His resignation acceptance remained in limbo, while he briefly joined the National Conference (NC) and then started his own outfit, J&K People’s Party. He spent time in jail, like many other leaders in Kashmir, under the Public Safety Act (PSA). After three years, Faesal had a change of heart, spoke in favour of the Modi government — DoPT minister Jitendra Singh called it a “heart transplant” — and he was reinstated in the government in 2022.