Syed Shahnawaz Hussain explains his position as ‘the lone Muslim minister’ in the government to Ajay Singh

He chose The Golden Phoenix, the Chinese restaurant at the Le Meridien for dinner because it is his favourite eatery. “This is a nice place” he remarked as he settled down at the table and peered at the traffic that was doing unspeakable things on Janpath .

Hussain was late: he had been trying to persuade a delegation of Muslim leaders who were on the Haj committee to take a subsidy cut on the Haj pilgrimage.

“The problem with the leaders of my community is that they want concessions but they do not want to be seen asking for them from this government,” he said with a twinkle.

Hussain explained that the government had raised the Haj subsidy to Rs 200 crore which should, in a perfect world, be evidence of the fact that the BJP cares for Muslims. But well-heeled Muslims were still resisting doing away with handouts.

Having initiated the discussion on his favourite topic — saving the BJP from being branded an anti-Muslim party — Shahnawaz asked for fresh fruit juice before explaining why he was uniquely placed to be the defender of Muslims (and Hindus) in a pro-Hindu Party.

“I wonder — given the nature of politics today — if people from my background can ever hope to be where I am today,” he said. Hussain came to Delhi from Samastipur in Bihar immediately after acquiring a diploma in engineering from the Pusa Institute.

“I used to watch RSS shakhas with a lot of apprehension, thinking that they were probably planning to kill Muslims,” he said somewhat ingenuously, adding that his meeting with BJP leaders changed his perception totally. “I joined the BJP in 1985 under one Muslim leader, Arif Beg, who subsequently left the party,” he said.

“In 1993, I met Uma Bharati who, somehow, took a fancy to me and decided to promote me,” he said humbly. Bharati turned out to be his political mentor.

“I am the lone Muslim minister in the 74-member Union council of ministers and one among the 13 Muslim cabinet ministers India has had since independence,” Hussain said proudly. “I must tell you that after Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, no Muslim minister has had as much autonomy as I’ve been given in this regime,” he bragged.

I was finding all of this a bit tedious, so I asked him how he felt about people being killed in Gujarat, something that neither fits with the BJP’s claim of being a government that governs (because we now know that the killings were by errors of omission on the part of the state) nor does the Hindu party proud.

Hussain’s face blanched. “That is the only episode that always causes me acute embarrassment,” he said frankly. “Leave the Gujarat riots aside and the BJP has an illustrious record of maintaining communal harmony,” he said, referring to the fact that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi had, after all, ordered the police to fire on Hindus as well to curb the violence.

We ordered the main course. Hussain asked, unaccountably, for a vegetarian American chop suey which, when it appeared, seemed to comprise fried noodles doused in a violent orange sauce. I ordered fish, Chinese greens, noodles and rice. I caught Hussain looking at the fish longingly. But he is a strict vegetarian outside home.

“Didn’t you become a minister by dint of the simple fact that you are the lone Muslim MP in the BJP,” I asked to provoke him.

“The BJP’s misfortune is that Muslim leaders in the party have never been popular among the Muslims,” he said, adding that he had won the Kishanganj seat from Bihar where 70 per cent of the electorate was Muslim.

“But didn’t Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also win from the Muslim-dominated Rampur constituency in 1998?” I asked innocently to drive home the point that if Naqvi had won the election, he would have been the natural choice for the cabinet.

“Naqvi is a Shia whose community is an insignificant fraction among Indian Muslims,” Hussain was driven to respond, but hastened to point out that he had nothing against Naqvi as such.

The food arrived. The turning point in Hussain’s political career came on December 4, 1991 when he organised a conference of Muslims to felicitate Vajpayee and Advani. The turnout was huge.

By coincidence, this was followed by the events of December 6 so his party noted the “hold” he had on his community. His subsequent oratory in defence of the BJP in Parliament endeared him to the top leadership and led to his ultimate elevation.

“But there is a general feeling that you were made civil aviation minister so that someone else could pull the strings,” I stated bluntly.

“I have also been hearing this but I am yet to find anyone who has asked me to do their bidding,” he said, adding that he enjoyed perfect “independence” though he does seek guidance from “Atalji and Advaniji” on certain sensitive issues.

The maincourse was about to finish when it struck me that Hussain is known for throwing lavish Iftaar parties during his tenure as a minister. “It is an occasion to call friends and meet them,” he explained. “But why film stars and starlets like Ravina Tandon?” I asked. “Because they are my fans and friends,” Hussain said and displayed the numbers of top Bollywood actors on his mobile phone.

“Fans?” I enquired and learnt that not only had Hussain been approached for bit parts in Mumbai films, but actor and friend Sanjay Khan had also produced his folio of publicity pictures for modelling assignments.

“I always want to be remembered as a performer — and not as the BJP’s Muslim minister,” he said, adding a barrage of information on all the things he had done as minister — turning Air India into a profitable airline, and so on.

He also said he was not ashamed of being in the BJP. Elaborating on this, he said that Hindus and Muslims must be reconciled to the fact they have to live together and there was no other option.

“I am saying this out of my own experience. My wife is a Brahmin,” he said, adding that in his political career, he had never felt let down by the BJP. “Not even when the PM made that controversial statement justifying the demolition of the Babri mosque as an expression of national sentiments?” I asked.

Vajpayee had made that statement at one of Hussain’s Iftaar parties. Hussain groped for words and mumbled something incomprehensible. He was not keen to have dessert so I decided to leave it at that.