India, Sept. 17 -- Kashmiri bureaucrat Shah Faesal, who once launched a political party and called for a non-violent mass movement, on Wednesday wrote a birthday post for Prime Minister Narendra Modi equating him with "a priest-king" for allowing him back into the IAS.

"A true visionary recognized the worth in my modest beginnings and the struggles that had shaped me. He seemed to read the intent behind my journey, he forgave, the way a priest-king might, measuring not pedigree but purpose," read the X post by Shah Faesal.

A medical doctor by education, Shah Faesal first shot into the limelight when he became the first Kashmiri to top the civil services examination 15 years ago. A decade later, by 2019, he was disillusioned.

He resigne...