Newsmaker: Azam Khan

A thorn in Cong's flesh in UP

Recently, Mohammad Azam Khan, minister in the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh, said he would take up with the United Nations the incident of a 50-year-old man being killed by a mob in Dadri over rumours of storing and consuming beef. The comment has stirred up a controversy.

Khan is the original plebeian socialist. The son of a farmer from Rampur, the seat of the family of the Nawab of Rampur, he was stirred by the anti-feudalism movement. Khan helped organise the Muslim community in Rampur against the mighty Nawab. During the days of the Emergency, he was arrested from Aligarh, where he was studying for an LLM degree. In jail, he met Mulayam Singh Yadav and the two became friends. Khan joined the Janata Party (Charan Singh) and became a member of the legislative Assembly in 1980. Since then, he has been the most powerful opponent of the Congress in the state. Khan supported Mulayam Singh when the latter took charge of the Janata Party and re-launched it as Samajwadi Party.

In the 1980s, the Babri Masjid Action Committee (BMAC) was set up. Few know it was actually launched at Khan's official residence; at that time, he was a Lok Dal MLA and Shripat Mishra was the chief minister. Soon, the activities of the BMAC became a pain for the Congress government.

Azam Khan was arrested again. Khan was conscious of the fact that several forces were working against him and his colleagues at the BMAC. Repeatedly, he said he derived his ideological strength from Maulana Muhammed Ali Jauhar, one of the protagonists of the Khilfat movement. Jauhar said he was a Muslim first, a Muslim second and a Muslim last when it came to Islam, and an Indian first, an Indian second and an Indian last when it came to India. He argued Muslims in India were Indians by choice. Khan's speeches ensured many Muslims abandoned the Congress and voted in large numbers for the Samajwadi Party.

For Mulayam Singh Yadav, Khan coined a new term: 'Rafiq-ul-Mulk'. It seemed the Yadav-Muslim bond had become really strong. The SP swept the Assembly elections and Mulayam Singh Yadav announced the state government would hire Urdu teachers and translators. Following an incident of firing on Karsevaks, Muslims began to feel not only Azam Khan, Mulayam Singh Yadav was also a saviour. However, after Singh came into power, the promotion of his family and caste began to irk Khan. To cut Khan down to size, Jaya Prada was given the Rampur Lok Sabha seat.

At around this time, Sakshi Maharaj left the Bharatiya Janata Party to join the SP. Khan was upset: Maharaj had earlier announced he had secured rubble from the demolished Babri Masjid to use it to construct a floor. The induction of Kalyan Singh, ostensibly to show solidarity with lower castes, was the final straw. Khan distanced himself from the SP, before being finally expelled. It was much later that Khan was brought back by Mulayam Singh and given pride of place. By then, the extended Yadav family was present across the government and the party. Khan reconciled himself to the changes.

Khan's remark that though Muslims in India were Indians first, they had to prove they weren't Pakistanis, has moved Muslims and Hindus alike. Like him or hate him, you can't ignore him.