Kerala Governor accuses CMO of ‘patronising smuggling’: Meet Arif Mohammed Khan, known for candour and controversy

The Governor was responding to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s accusation that he was trying to make universities in the state “centres of RSS and Sangh Parivar”.

While several states have witnessed Governor-government disagreements recently, Khan’s statements often stick out and invite allegations of overreach. Weeks ago, he had claimed that if ministers in the state made remarks to “lower the dignity of the office of the Governor”, they could be sacked.

Man of many parties

Being in controversy for his remarks is not new to Arif Mohammed Khan, who became an MLA at the age of 26, and has since served in various political parties, from the Congress, the Janata Dal, to BSP and BJP.

While he had quit the BSP because it was joining hands with the BJP after the 2002 Gujarat riots — saying the party was making common cause with “the practitioners of hatred indulging in the most barbaric, unprecedented and perverse violence in Gujarat” – he himself joined the BJP two years later. In 2007, he left the party.

Early political career

The Indian Express has earlier reported that Khan began his political life as a student activist. As president and general secretary of the Aligarh Muslim University Students’ Union in the early 1970s, it is said that Khan refused to invite Islamic clerics to the university.

He became an MLA on a Janata Party ticket from Siana in Uttar Pradesh at 26 and was a deputy minister, but resigned soon over the government’s handling of the Lucknow riots between Shias and Sunnis. He later joined the Indira faction of the Congress. In 1980, Khan — who was then an AICC Joint Secretary — entered Parliament for the first time and found a place in the Indira Gandhi Cabinet too, as Deputy Minister in charge of Information and Broadcasting.

Shah Bano case and after

The defining moment of his career came in 1986, when Khan was Minister of State in the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government, holding the portfolios of Energy, Industry and Company Affairs and Home. The young minister resigned after the government brought in legislation to overturn the Supreme Court judgment in the Shah Bano case. Khan’s stand was to endear him to those on the Right and a section among the progressives, but angered the Muslim clergy and his own party colleagues.

After Rajiv expelled Khan from the Congress, he joined hands with V P Singh and became an MP on a Janata Dal ticket. After the V P Singh government fell, Khan joined the BSP and became its general secretary. After the Gujarat riots of 2002, he resigned from the BSP when it became clear that the party would join hands with the BJP to form the government in UP.

Two years later, Khan joined the BJP and unsuccessfully contested the 2004 Lok Sabha election from Kaiserganj seat on a BJP ticket. However, three years later, he quit the BJP, accusing the party of giving tickets to “tainted” leaders in UP.

Tenure as Governor

The Indian Express has earlier reported that those who associate with Khan say he is stuck in the ‘Shah Bano moment’ and believes that his stand in the case and his criticism of the Congress laid the foundation for both the fall of the Congress and for the BJP to make ‘reformist’ interventions, such as the triple talaq law.

While Khan always had a penchant for being noticed — as the suave, English-speaking, ‘progressive’ Muslim face known to speak his mind — now that he holds the constitutional post of Governor, this candour raises eyebrows.

However, though he is constantly sparring with the state government, Khan has worked hard to cultivate a “people’s Governor” image. He lends his name to social causes and practices, is often spotted wearing the mundu (dhoti), and uses every opportunity he gets to praise the Muslims of Kerala for “staying away from the clergy, unlike in the north”.