Bureaucrat Shah Faesal has taken a jibe at Pakistan over appointment of Rishi Sunak as the first Indian-origin Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He said Mr Sunak's appointment might be a surprise for Pakistan where people from minority community can't hold the top post, but not in Indian democracy. He cited his own journey as an Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer. Mr Faesal said Muslims in India enjoy "freedoms that are unthinkable in any other so called Islamic country" and praised the Indian democracy.
"It's possible only in India that a Muslim youngster from Kashmir can go on to top the Indian Civil Service exam, rise to top echelons of the government, then fall apart with the government and still be rescued and taken back by the same government," Mr Faesal said in his first tweet.
"Rishi Saunak's appointment might be a surprise for our neighbours where the Constitution bars non-Muslims from top posts in the Government, but Indian democracy has never discriminated ethnic and religious minorities from the rest," he said in subsequent post.
Mr Faesal, a 2010 batch IAS topper of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir cadre, now AGMUT, had resigned from the services in January 2019 and joined politics, which he later quit in August 2020.
The central government reinstated Mr Faesal earlier this year and appointed him as Deputy Secretary in the Tourism Ministry.
"My own life-story is about a journey, shoulder to shoulder, with each fellow citizen of this nation of 1.3 Billion people, where I have felt owned, respected, encouraged and at times pampered at every step of the way. That's India," he said on Twitter.
Mr Faesal then mentioned former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, former President Zakir Hussain and current President Droupadi Murmu to say that India has always been the land of equal opportunity.
Mr Faesal is the first UPSC topper from Jammu and Kashmir. He came into the limelight for the first time after topping the Civil Services Exam.
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