Tag Archives: Azam Khan

Azam’s son relies on dad’s star power

UTTAR PRADESH :

Azam Khan
Azam Khan

Rampur :

On the way to Maswasi Village, where Azam was to hold a public meeting, Abdullah explains that he could have opted any other “easy” seat to launch his political career but his decision to contest from SwarTanda was taken because of public demand. “After the election commission imposed a ban on my father during the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, I addressed the public for the first time from Swar on the request of chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.Since then, the public has been demanding that I should contest from here and bring development to the area,” said Abdullah, while showing roads, drains, bridges and electrification of few villages completed under his direction in the past three years.

“No candidate was interested in contesting from here, but I took it as a challenge and will create a record by defeating the nawab,” he added.

Abdullah, Azam and their convoy stopped at Maswasi village, where a crowd of nearly 10,000 was waiting for the two leaders to arrive.The father-son duo was given a grand welcome with the bursting of firecrackers and slogan-shouting.

In his two-minute speech, Abdullah said, “During campaigning, a man asked me when the road in his area would be constructed. And when I told him that the project had already been passed, he didn’t believe me as politicians from Noor Mahal (residence of the royal family of Nawab) and BJP always made false promises.”

Azam started his speech saying that his son does not have the experience of a seasoned politician but that Abdullah will soon learn the tricks of the trade.

“A family has always oppressed you and the time has come to show your power.Whatever money , clothes and food, they (royal family) have are yours,” said Azam.

After the end of the event, the local leaders pleaded to make way for Azam and his son to return to his vehicle.The crowd followed him even when he was seated in his car. They ran beside the car to shake hands with Azam and Abdullah as they drove out of the rally ground. In Swar-Tanda constituency, SP leader Azam Khan’s 26year-old son, Abdullah Azam Khan, will take on BSP’s Nawab Kazim Ali Khan, who is the present titular head of Rampur and four-time MLA.The junior Khan is relying on his father’s star power to draw votes. TOI trails the SP leader on one of the five evenings he promised to campaign for his son.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> Chennai News> Kanpur News / Priyangi  Agarwal / TNN / February 10th, 2017

A Look At the ‘Life and Times of a Nationalist Muslim’

Aligarh, UTTAR PRADESH :

M. Hashim Kidwai’s memoir recollects the student movements at Lucknow University, the role of Muslims in resisting Partition, and their participation in politics and academics after Independence.

Muslims hold pigeons during a march to celebrate India’s Independence Day in Ahmedabad, India, August 15, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave
Muslims hold pigeons during a march to celebrate India’s Independence Day in Ahmedabad, India, August 15, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave

There is a remarkable similarity in the rise and ascension of religious reactionaries between the majority and minority communities in the decade before Independence. During the period of 1938-47, the Muslim League’s communal separatism was in fierce contest with the majoritarian assertion of the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS, while at the same time it also benefitted from the extremism of the other party. The colonial state abetted such reactionary forces.

Other than the presence of the colonial state during that era, the Congress was the most powerful political force in the country, and was led by the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Azad, even though the ideologies of many members of the provincial and district Congress leadership overlapped considerably with the Hindu Mahasabha.

Another reassuring difference is that today we do not have a Muslim political force comparable with Jinnah’s Muslim League, even though we do have the likes of Asaduddin Owaisi, Azam Khan and the sympathisers of the illiberal, non-plural, exclusionary traditions among Muslims and Hindus. If one may add, at the global scale as well, such forces seem to be on the rise today.

Born in 1921, Muhammad Hashim Kidwai saw all of this from close proximity. In his diary, he recollects the days of the late colonial India while living in today’s era. The title of the book itself is interesting. He describes himself as a ‘nationalist Muslim’.

In the late colonial period, the likes of Maulana Azad and Rafi Kidwai were banking upon the nationalist Muslims against the onslaught of the Muslim nationalists (or the votaries of the separate nationhood), just as the likes of Gandhi and Nehru were fighting with the Hindu nationalists, the rabid majoritarian reactionaries.

One should read the first volume of Kidwai’s reminiscence in the backdrop of these events. His account is rich in details pertaining to politics up to the Nehru era. His presence in Lucknow as a student till his late 20s and then his role as a teacher of political science at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) immediately after Independence and Partition enabled him to articulate significant narratives.

The fact that he was also an activist – both as a student and as a teacher – adds to the sharpness of his observations and insights. His long chapter on the student movement in Lucknow University provides vivid details of various little and big political organisations and fronts, literary associations and journalistic initiatives. The details captured in that chapter provide a valuable account of the political evolution of the Lucknow youth in the popular phase of the national movement.

In terms of academic explorations in India, we have an inadequate understanding of student movements as well the role of Muslims in resisting partition. This chapter invites us to make attempts towards filling the gap. The subsequent brief chapter on the consequences of Partition reflects on how Muslims adjusted thereafter.

Vice President Muhammad Hamid Ansari with Hashim Kidwai (C) at the launch of his book Life and Times of a Nationalist Muslim. Credit: Aligarh Movement
Vice President Muhammad Hamid Ansari with Hashim Kidwai (C) at the launch of his book Life and Times of a Nationalist Muslim. Credit: Aligarh Movement

It also hints at the relatively greater communalisation of the regional politics of Uttar Pradesh, which pushed Rafi Kidwai out of UP politics and then led to Nehru accommodating him in national politics.

There are a number of Urdu memoirs about the socio-political life on the huge AMU campus, but rather than offering informed criticism and reflections, most are essentially exaggerated eulogies. Kidwai’s memoir is not very critical either, but it does stand out for being able to relate campus life to the world outside. To him, the AMU campus was neither politically insulated nor did it suffer from an ‘isolation syndrome.’

Life and Times of a Nationalist Muslim M. Hashim Kidwai Universal Book House Aligarh, 2015
Life and Times of a Nationalist Muslim
M. Hashim Kidwai
Universal Book House Aligarh, 2015

Being a quintessential Congressman, his narrative about the stealth placing of an idol in the Babri Masjid in December 1949 is focussed more against socialists like Ram Manohar Lohia and Acharya Narendra Dev, who according to him, remained silent to this injustice. Kidwai, however, does show his reservations against G.B. Pant, the then chief minister of UP. He complains, “Both Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel urged Pandit Pant, the UP premier, to take strong action… But for reasons best known to him, Pantji did not take any action… Pantji’s policy of leaving everything to the district authorities was very much condemned and resented by a large number of Congressmen.”

Progressing strictly in chronological sequence and living up to its name as a diary, almost half of the memoir is devoted to AMU. Kidwai served there not only as a teacher but also as a writer of textbooks, a teacher activist and also contributed in academic governance.

In a huge residential university like AMU, which houses more than 30,000 students, “policing” students is a challenging task. Kidwai describes his roles as that of a provost of a residential hall as well as a proctor. While describing the role of the various vice chancellors, he, unfortunately, neglects their impact on establishing or encouraging academic rigour.

Kidwai is almost solely concerned with the socio-political life on the campus and the narrative gives the impression that the Youth Congress dominated the campus. Other accounts of post-Independence AMU inform us that Left activism had gained a significant presence at the university in the 1960s. Kidwai’s account ignores this and also does not dwell on the composition of the student body, that is, the regions the students came from or their socio-economic status.

The volume concludes with the death of Nehru in 1964.

A close reading of India’s comparative history that draws few parallels between the elections of 1946 and of 2014, and the consequences thereof, is still awaited. One hopes that the sequel volume of Kidwai’s memoir will delve deeper into such issues.

By his own admission in the preface, Kidwai, as a parliamentarian, stood behind the clergy, jarringly conservative on gender issues. He was also one of those that ill-advisedly encouraged Rajiv Gandhi to legislate against the Supreme Court verdict on the Shah Bano issue. Therefore, this first volume really sets up expectations for the next and about how he will recollect the days of 1985-86, especially at a time when the same gender issues have once again acquired significant political saliency. Equally important will be to read his views on the decline of the Congress post-1980s.

This is an important book, one which will become a resource for scholars interested in the participation of Muslims in both politics and in academics after Independence.

 

source:  http://www.thewire.in / The Wire / Home> Books / by Mohammad Sajjad / November 04th, 2016

LOK SABHA ELECTIONS 2014 : Azam Khan’s choice is SP’s Rampur candidate

The former member of the U.P. Minorities Commission, Nasheed Ahmed Khan, will be the Samajwadi Party candidate from Rampur in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election.

Rampur, situated in the Muslim-dominated Rohilkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, is Urban Development Minister Mohammad Azam Khan’s political backyard and the Samajwadi Party candidate is said to be of his choice.

Party president Mulayam Singh had authorised Mr. Azam Khan to take a final call on the candidate.

Mr. Nasheed Ahmed Khan’s candidature was declared by the party on Saturday. Rampur is among the 11 constituencies where polling would be held in the second phase on April 17.

With Mr. Khan’s nomination, the Samajwadi Party has declared the names of candidates for 78 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the State. Only Rae Bareli and Amethi remain.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, the Rampur seat was won by Jaya Prada, who was fielded by Mr. Mulayam Singh despite opposition from Mr. Azam Khan.

Ms. Prada’s nomination from Rampur (she had won the seat for the SP in the 2004 Lok Sabha poll ) and former SP leader Amar Singh’s reported influence over the Samajwadi Party president was one of the factors for the rift between Mr. Mulayam Singh and Mr. Azam Khan. He was subsequently expelled from the party.

Things turned full circle when Mr. Amar Singh was expelled and Mr. Azam Khan made a return to the party.

Jaya Prada is likely to join the Congress and may be fielded from the neighbouring Moradabad.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Other States / by Atiq Khan / Lucknow – March 09th, 2014