New Delhi: “A person of his personal thoughts”, “politically astute”, “by no means forgets to respect opponents” is how buddies and critics describe Arif Mohammed Khan, the governor of Kerala who has been making the information for his frequent spats with state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Simply two days in the past, Khan alleged that the Kerala Chief Minister’s Workplace (CMO) was “patronising smuggling actions” and that the state of affairs had given him “grounds to intrude”.
Vijayan, alternatively, accused the governor — referring to his strikes towards college vice-chancellors — of “attempting to implement the saffronisation agenda” of the Proper wing and “attempting to make universities within the state centres of the Sangh Parivar”.
In response, Khan has dared Vijayan, who heads Kerala’s Left Democratic Entrance alliance, to show that he has “nominated even one particular person” from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The tussle between the places of work of Khan and Vijayan has now turn out to be an everyday affair in Kerala, the place the governor took cost in September 2019 after he was “advisable for the put up by (deceased BJP chief) Arun Jaitley”, based on Ok.C Tyagi, a Janata Dal (United) chief who was as soon as Khan’s colleague within the erstwhile Bharatiya Kranti Dal (BKD).
Khan, in his nearly 50-year political profession that spans Chaudhary Charan Singh’s BKD, the Congress, the Janata Dal, the Bahujan Samaj Occasion and the Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP), has saved controversy alive along with his public run-ins with figures in authority, his stand towards hard-line Muslim practices and hyperlinks with the RSS.
In 1986, he shot to prominence on account of his variations with then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi over the passage of the Muslim Private Legislation Invoice throughout the Shah Bano case. Extra lately, he has backed the Modi authorities’s controversial triple talaq regulation, welcomed the Karnataka Excessive Court docket order on the hijab row, and saved the Kerala authorities on tenterhooks since he took cost as governor.
Late final month, he referred to as for the Kerala CM to sack state finance minister Ok.N. Balagopal. Earlier than that, in August, he stayed the appointment of Vijayan’s non-public secretary Ok.Ok. Rajesh’s spouse as an affiliate professor at Kannur College, and alleged a conspiracy to assault him bodily when he was invited to the Indian Historical past Congress in 2019.
He’s often known as a Muslim mental who’s well-versed in each the Bhagavad Gita and the Quran, and who has translated the nationwide music, ‘Vande Mataram’, into Urdu.
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Scholar politics to nationwide stage
Khan, who studied at Aligarh Muslim College (AMU), began his political life as a pupil activist and was president of the college college students’ union within the early Nineteen Seventies.
“From his early days, he selected to oppose regressive Muslim practices and Left ideology, as soon as going as far as to refuse to ask clerics into the college,” stated an individual near him.
In accordance with AMU professor Ali Nadeem Rezavi, Khan “opposed the Left when he was a pupil chief in AMU and labelled them ‘anti-Muslim’”.
“Now that he has joined Hindutva, his Left hatred is once more at its peak,” Rezavi stated, including that “Arif is a pure politician who is aware of the path of the wind”.
Later within the Nineteen Seventies, Khan turned related to former Uttar Pradesh CM and PM Chaudhary Charan Singh, a farmer chief from western UP. He went on to turn out to be the final secretary of the youth wing of the BKD — which was later merged into the Janata Occasion — whereas Tyagi was the secretary of BKD’s youth morcha. Piloo Mody, one of many founding members of the Swatantra Occasion, was the final secretary of BKD.
Tyagi recalled: “Arif was near Mody and we began within the youth morcha with Charan Singh. Quickly, the Emergency was introduced and we have been all put in jail. Within the 1977 election, after the lifting of the Emergency, Arif turned an MLA (Siyana) for the primary time on a Janata Occasion ticket on the age of 26. He was additionally made a deputy minister in UP, in control of excise and waqf, however was sacked due to his variations with then CM Ram Naresh Yadav.”
Khan went on to marketing campaign for Congress candidate Mohsina Kidwai within the Azamgarh bypoll of 1978. “She received the ballot and he bought all the whole credit score,” stated Tyagi.
In 1980, he joined the Congress. Then celebration chief Indira Gandhi gave Khan the prospect to contest the 1980 Lok Sabha polls on a celebration ticket from Kanpur — a seat he received — and he was inducted into her cupboard as deputy minister in control of info and broadcasting (1982-83). He later received the 1984 election from Bahraich and have become a minister within the Rajiv Gandhi cupboard.
Shah Bano case
The defining level of Khan’s political service was the Shah Bano case when he was a minister of state holding the fees of house, vitality and firm affairs from 1984 to 1986.
Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister when the Supreme Court docket delivered a historic verdict in 1985 granting alimony to a divorced Muslim lady, Shah Bano. The Congress fielded Khan to talk in Parliament in favour of the judgment, which was criticised by the Muslim clergy and All India Muslim Private Legislation Board.
Beneath strain, the Rajiv Gandhi authorities introduced within the Muslim Girls (Safety of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, which put aside the Shah Bano judgment.
Professor Ali Athar, of AMU’s historical past division, stated: “Arif was fielded by the Congress to talk in Parliament, it was not his private alternative. Later, the celebration realised it will boomerang so it fielded one other minister, Ziaur Rahman Ansari, to contradict Arif’s view and problem the SC judgment. It was not Arif’s private views however the Congress viewpoint that flip-flopped.”
In 1987, Rajiv Gandhi expelled his cousin Arun Nehru, former defence minister V.P. Singh and Khan from the Congress.
Khan and the 2 others subsequently began a nationwide agitation towards the PM and went on to type the Jan Morcha, which later merged into the Janata Dal.
V.P. Singh went on to turn out to be prime minister in 1989, having shaped the Janata Dal in 1988. Driving on the VP Singh wave, Khan turned an MP from Bahraich once more in 1989 on a Janata Dal ticket.
Tyagi remembers that “V.P. Singh was conscious of Arif’s progressive stand on the Shah Bano episode, so within the 1991 Lok Sabha election, he didn’t name Arif to Allahabad to marketing campaign as he was fearful that Muslims wouldn’t vote”.
After Singh’s authorities fell, Khan joined the BSP and have become its normal secretary. He fought the 1996 and 1998 elections on a BSP ticket.
Padamsen Chaudhary, former BJP MP from Bahraich who defeated Khan within the 1996 and 1999 Lok Sabha elections, recalled: “First, Arif fought towards my father Rudrasen in Bahraich; later, he was pitted towards me. I defeated him in two elections, whereas he defeated me in 1998 on a BSP ticket.”
On Khan, Chaudhary added: “He saved altering events however simply mobilised large leaders to marketing campaign. Nonetheless, he by no means forgot to respect his opponents. Even throughout elections, he used to cross my house and all the time exchanged greetings with my members of the family regardless of us being rivals.”
A stint with BJP and LJP
After the Gujarat riots of 2002, Khan resigned from the BSP to protest the celebration’s choice to affix fingers with the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. In a letter to BSP chief Kanshi Ram, he wrote, “Since I stand dedicated to battle towards communalism and the BSP has determined to align itself with the BJP, I see no ethical method out however to half firm, so I can dedicate myself completely to the reason for preventing towards divisive forces”.
Khan subsequent had a short dalliance with Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Occasion (LJP). Zafar Sareshwala, former chancellor of Maulana Azad Nationwide Urdu College, stated, “I bought to satisfy Arif quickly after the Gujarat riots. Khan and Paswan had come to Gujarat to work in Muslim bastis and heal wounds. He stayed right here for greater than 80 days. He was very candid and vocal concerning the rights of Muslims and what was unsuitable with the group.”
Two years later, Khan joined the very celebration he had so bitterly opposed and criticised. He contested the 2004 Lok Sabha elections from Kaiserganj seat on a BJP ticket, however misplaced.
Tyagi stated, “He (Khan) was supposed to satisfy (then Congress president) Sonia Gandhi to make a comeback within the celebration, however he met the BJP and bought a ticket in 2004.”
Three years later, nevertheless, Khan stop the BJP, accusing it of giving tickets to tainted leaders in UP.
Within the decade since 2007, Khan maintained a public profile as a scholar and Muslim mental, writing and talking on minority points. He has additionally stated he has maintained good relations with the RSS because the Shah Bano controversy.
How did Khan turn out to be governor of Kerala in 2019? Sareshwala recalled, “At some point, once I was chatting with (then Union finance minister Arun) Jaitley, he requested me the place Khan was today. I despatched a message to Arif saheb that Jaitley was enquiring about him. Later, I came upon that he had been introduced because the governor of Kerala,” he stated.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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