Muqimuddin Farooqui, who died on Wednesday (September 3), was a rare entity in the harsh world of politics. He was described by comrades in the Communist Party of India (CPI) as a Gandhian Marxist. And till the end he never abandoned the spartan simplicity which he brought into the world of politics in mid thirties.
Mind you, Farooqui was not one to be afraid of controversy. He once created a stir by challenging the Imam of Jama Masjid on his own turf. Farooqui demanded that Syed Abdullah Bukhari should either stay out of politics or get out of the Jama Masjid. The agitated Bukhari questioned Farooquis credentials as a Muslim as neither his family (Farooqui married a Hindu) nor his heart was with Islam.
Farooqui shot back pointing out that he was a descendent of a family of Pirs who used to teach Mughal emperors. By contrast, the Bukharis were hired by the Mughals to lead prayers at the Jama Masjid. I do not need to get a certificate from Bukhari about my Muslim credentials, said Farooqui.
Throughout his life he believed in separation of politics from religion and argued persuasively that nations founded on religious edifice were bound to crumble. A booklet written by him in 1971 titled Why did Pakistan break up? bears testimony to his beliefs. In the slim booklet Farooqui sketched the history of Muslim politics in the subcontinent since 1857.
Born in 1920, at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Farooqui came to St Stephens College, Delhi for his university education. He was perhaps one of the first students to be expelled by the then Delhi University vice-chancellor Maurice Gwyer, for his political activities. By this time he had already come under the influence of the trinity of Indian National Congress, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
From Gandhi he inherited an aversion to power and simplicity of life, and from Nehru and Azad, the secular credentials. However, it was the late communist leader Bahal Singh who initiated him to the Marxist movement. In 1940, he joined the then undivided Communist Party of India and remained one of its most respected leaders right till the end.
But Farooqui, unlike other politicians, never abandoned the spartan lifestyle of his early years. He had lived in a one-room flat in the congested Jama Masjid locality since 1952. And until 1988, he would always catch a bus home after a hard days work for the party. When he became older, party colleagues insisted that he should stop taking buses and he reluctantly complied with their demands.
But Farooqui was different from other politicians in other ways too. He never accepted public office even when it was thrust at him. Throughout his life, he refused to enter Parliament or accept a gubernatorial assignment. Even in early 1997, Farooqui turned down an offer from prime minister HD Deve Gowda for a governorship. Deve Gowda generously offered him any state in the Union. But it was probably the deep-rooted Gandhian dislike of power that got the upper hand.
Farooqui had one other claim to fame which few people knew about. He was a key mentor of Afghan Communist leader Najibullah. Some friends joked that by his association with Najibullah, who came to study medicine in Delhi, he had changed the course of Afghanistans history.
But above all Farooqui was a patriot who never compromised on his secular credentials. One of his favourite Persian couplets used to convey his patriotic zeal. The translation goes: For a smile of my Indian girlfriend who has a mole on her face, I am ready to sacrifice the whole of Samarkand and Bukhara.
Inevitably, a man like Farooqui had friendships that cut across political boundaries. He got along well with a range of political leaders, including people like I K Gujral, VP Singh, GK Moopanar and Farooq Abdullah. And in the BJP he had friends like Madan Lal Khurana and Murli Manohar Joshi. The widespread affection was evident at CPI headquarters, Ajoy Bhawan, after his death.
However, Farooqui was always deeply regretful about the Communist split in 1964. He always argued that the people who walked out from the undivided party violated the principle of inner-party democracy as they were in minority and they did not follow the majoritys views. Lately, he used to say that it was high time the communist parties got united as there were no ideological differences between them. The only difference, he insisted acidly, was the lack of inner-party democracy in other communist parties apart from his CPI.
Perhaps, he had realised much before his death that he was one of a dying breed of Gandhian politicians. And he used to tell his party colleagues: Hamhin par khatm kar do apni zulfon ki paresani, hamare bad ye pareshan zulf kaun dekhega. (Pour all your problems on me, for who will take care of your problems once I am not there).
