Lucknow: “Daayare me simat ke aaya hai, har ravayat se hatt ke aaya hai, Andhiyon ko zara khabar kar do, sher vapis palat ke aaya hai…(He has include restraint, with out custom, Go inform the storms, the lion has returned).” This was Could 2016 when a younger poet, Imran Pratapgarhi, sang praises of ex-MP and gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed. Atiq was attending a felicitation ceremony for Pratapgarhi, who had simply been bestowed the Yash Bharti award by the then Samajwadi Get together (SP) authorities on the age of 28.
He additionally went on to say that at any time when he targets “merciless governments” by means of his poetry, he remembers that “there’s somebody sitting in Allahabad who would handle every part”.
Two years later, in one other mushaira, he once more showered reward on Atiq, saying: “Badi dushwaariyan hain par jise gaaya zaroori hai, chhalak kar band honthon tak chala aaya zaroori hai, Allahabad walon baat meri yaad rakhna tum, tumhare shaher par iss shaks ka saaya zaroori hai (Keep in mind Allahabadis, the shadow of this man is critical in your metropolis),” he recited.
Minimize to 2023. Whereas 35-year-old Pratapgarhi’s profession graph has shot up since, and he’s a Rajya Sabha MP of the Congress from Maharashtra, his alleged affinity to Atiq has made him the goal of political rivals.
Days after Atiq and his brother Ashraf had been killed in Prayagraj whereas in police custody, the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) mounted an assault on Pratapgarhi when the Congress included his identify in its listing of 40 star campaigners for the ten Could Karnataka meeting elections.
Nonetheless, Atiq isn’t the one one for whom Pratapgarhi used the title of sher in his poem. In March 2017, forward of the UP meeting elections, he used the identical quatrain for one other alleged gangster-turned-politician, Mukhtar Ansari, calling him a “lion” too. Ansari was preventing his fifth election and Pratapgarhi had gone to entertain an election rally organised by him in Mau, and canvas for him.
Former vice-president of the Allahabad College Scholar Union (AUSU) Abhay Awasthi stated shayars, like different artists, promote their artwork.
“Many instances politicians, together with infamous ones, organise mushairas. Poets really feel compelled to reward the organiser who has pumped cash into the occasion. This isn’t the period of (Suryakant Tripathi) Nirala, Mahadevi Verma, Akbar Allahabadi and (Mirza) Ghalib when poets might say uncomfortable truths earlier than the rulers. This shouldn’t be linked to morality,” he stated.
His “skilled compulsions” for showering praises on Atiq or Ansari however, it’s the quatrain that has landed Pratapgarhi in hassle, with BJP chief and Union minister Shobha Karandlaje claiming that Pratapgarhi thought of Atiq as his “guru” and referred to as him “bhai (brother).”
“Such an individual turned a Congress MP from Maharashtra and entered the Rajya Sabha. He got here to Karnataka (throughout an election rally) and claimed that Muslims aren’t those that bow their heads however those that chop heads,” she was quoted as saying in media reviews.
She can be quoted as saying, “He made such statements to the media. He has uploaded the assertion on social media. He was related to Atiq Ahmed and used to ask the latter over meals… Atiq used to attend his mushairas. Such an individual is on the Congress star campaigner listing. It means Congress ka haath, Congress ka saath….”
Pratapgarhi didn’t reply to queries from ThePrint regardless of calls and messages. The Congress has not formally responded to the BJP’s assault. Nonetheless, ex-Congress MLA from Prayagraj, Anugrah Narayan Singh advised ThePrint that whereas he has not heard Pratapgarhi’s assertion, the latter isn’t one to make such controversial statements.
“I’ve met him a few instances. He isn’t an individual to make such statements. He comes throughout as an amiable individual,” he stated.
In the meantime, in his journey from a student-poet to a Congress chief, Pratapgarhi’s trajectory has seen many turns. From love for his mom, to Islamophobia, ‘ghar wapsi’, Kairana, terrorism, and Muslim unity, Pratapgarhi has written on numerous matters.
Whereas his poems “Predominant musalmaan hoon, Kairana bol raha hai” and “madrasa” tackled the problems of Islamophobia, and ‘ghar wapsi’, his “shor dehshat duaaon ki cheekhein suno,” was a tribute to the Pulwama martyrs.
ThePrint considered not less than 20 movies of Pratapgarhi reciting his shayaris between 2012 and 2022. A number of of those have been uploaded by him on his official YouTube channel.
In one of many movies, he alleged, whereas addressing a crowd, that senior BJP chief Subramanian Swamy had, whereas speaking to a information channel, stated that the easiest way to rule the nation was to divide Muslims. Pratapgarhi went on to ask the “Barelvis, Sunnis and Shias to be one and take to the streets”.
In but one other video, he talked about how he penned a verse whereas on the way in which to the venue.
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From AU scholar to shayar
“Hamaare haathon mein shehnayi thamaayi gayi to hum Ustad Bismillah Khan ho gaye, Hamaare haathon mein sarod thamaaya gaya to hum Amjad Ali Khan ho gaye, Hamare haathon mein tabla thamaaya gaya to hum Zakir Hussain ho gaye, Aur agar paer dagmagaya to Haji Mastan bhi ban gaye (When Muslims got shehnayi, we turned Ustad Bismillah Khan, when given the sarod, we turned Amjad Ali Khan, when given tabla, we turned Zakir Hussain, and after we wavered, we even turned Haji Mastan),” he wrote as Imran Khan, a lot earlier than turning into a politician.
Son of Mohammed Iliyas Khan, a Unani medication practitioner, and Sajida Khan, a homemaker, Pratapgarhi is the second of ten siblings.
Born in 1987, he arrived within the erstwhile Allahabad within the early 2000s.
Addressing a gathering again in 2017, he confessed he couldn’t communicate even khadi Hindi correctly when he landed within the erstwhile Allahabad for his increased schooling.
Speaking about Pratapgarhi’s rise from a scholar to a poet, former AUSU president Sanjay Tiwari advised ThePrint that in a cultural occasion in 2003, Imran participated in a poetry writing competitors and bagged the primary spot.
“He was pursuing his commencement when he expressed his need to take part. When he recited just a few poems, he received our appreciation immediately. I appointed him because the convenor of the poetry competitors. He went on to win the primary prize in that competitors, defeating 1000’s of members,” he recounted.
Tiwari recalled how he launched Imran to lyricist Javed Akhtar in the course of the latter’s go to to the town. “Akhtar was working an organisation for which he engaged Imran and the latter participated in mushairas overseas by means of the identical.”
As his reputation rose, Imran Khan turned Imran Pratapgarhi.
By 2016, Imran was putting all the correct chords with the audiences throughout Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, and even Dubai, together with his nazms and poems which had first made him well-known within the kavi sammelans of his alma mater.
His reputation reached the Akhilesh Yadav-led UP authorities in March 2016 which awarded the poet with the Yash Bharti award.
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‘Voice of Muslims’
Pratapgarhi has touched upon financial points such because the GST with the identical enthusiasm as he has spoken about Islamophobia, the disappearance of JNU scholar Najeeb Ahmed, and Muslim unity.
“Chai waale babu ko chai leke doobegi, chai se bache to gaye leke doobegi…Notebandi, GST is sab se bhi bach gaye, to Najeeb ki maa ki haaye leke doobegi (the tea vendor babu will lose due to the tea, if he escapes tea, he would lose on account of cow….if saved from demonetisation, GST and every part else, then he would lose because of the curse of Najeeb’s mom),” he recited at a mushaira at Jamia Millia Islamia in November 2017, resulting in rapturous applause from the general public.
In his media interviews, Pratapgarhi has stated the primary nazm that received him accolades was ‘madrasa’, by which he appealed to folks to delink madrasas from terrorism.
“Kabhi nahi ho sakta qatl-e-aam madarson se, mat jodo aatankvaad ka naam madarson se…(Madrasas can by no means trigger bloodshed, don’t hyperlink terrorism with madrasas),” he wrote.
Poet to Congress star campaigner
A recognized critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pratapgarhi, had advised a gathering quickly after getting the Yash Bharti award, “Individuals ask me if I’ll proceed to jot down boldly, right here is my reply…” He then went on to recite one other hard-hitting quatrain concentrating on the federal government.
When he wrote “Hum Musalmaan hain….,”and requested listeners to donate for the mom of Najeeb and the household of Minhaz Ansari who died allegedly after going through torture by the hands of Jharkhand police in 2016 following his arrest over “objectionable Whatsapp messages”, many noticed him as a voice of the Muslims.
As he rose in stature, Pratapgarhi’s presence was sought not simply by scholar leaders, socialites and intellectuals, but additionally by politicians.
One in all them was Atiq. Whereas introducing Atiq to a crowd in Pratapgarh again then, Pratapgarhi stated the previous was “like” his father and in addition a “good buddy”.
At one other occasion, he referred to as Atiq his “guru”.
In 2019, Pratapgarhi joined the Congress and contested the Lok Sabha election from UP’s Moradabad. He was delivered a crushing defeat by senior Samajwadi Get together chief S.T. Hasan.
Regardless of the loss, he continued to seek out favour with the get together excessive command and was one of many star campaigners of the Congress. In June 2021, he was appointed the chairman of the get together’s minority division.
Pratapgarhi’s meteoric rise inside the Congress led to resentment when in Could 2022, he was chosen because the Rajya Sabha member from Maharashtra, ignoring a number of senior leaders similar to Milind Deora and Sanjay Nirupam.
He turned a recognised determine in Congress protests — each inside and out of doors Parliament, and the face of the get together in information debates.
“Imran was all the time recognized for not mincing phrases. However, it’s the politician in him who has taken over the poet now and he’s making speeches,” stated considered one of his acquaintances from his college days on the situation of anonymity.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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