MP behind Narendra Modi visa campaign is a now-on,now-off politician

Adeeb has claimed 65 MPs wrote to US President Barack Obama urging him to deny a visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Modi. These MPs,many of whom have since denied signing such a letter,belong to various parties,while Adeeb himself is an independent elected to the Rajya Sabha from UP. He has had associations with various parties,and is in the Rajya Sabha with the backing of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party. He calls himself a socialist whose constituency comprises Muslims.

He studied at Aligarh Muslim University and was elected its student union’s vice-president in 1967 and its president in 1968,each time unopposed,something he calls an AMU record. As an AMU student,he says,he won awards for debating,cricket and badminton. “I came from Barabanki,” he says. “AMU gave me my political stage and also my life partner,who was my junior in botany. She is a former president of the AMU Women’s College student union.”

His only son,an MBA,runs a sports event management company. Of his daughters,the eldest is a social worker,another is an architect in Dubai,and the youngest,an MBA,works with a global marketing firm.

After university,Adeeb joined the Congress and worked with Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. In 1974,he had the Socialist Party backing him when he contested the assembly election from Lucknow,and lost.

During the Emergency years,he says,he received an invitation from Jayaprakash Narayan to Bihar. “During my time as AMU union president,I had conferred Jayaprakash life membership. I met him in Bihar,but a warrant was issued against me. Within six months,I left the country,” Adeeb says.

He returned from Dubai in 1980 and set up a labour goods export business. He stayed out of politics until 2002,the year of the Gujarat riots. “I met Sonia Gandhi and she accepted me in the Congress. I looked after the party’s campaign among minorities,” he says.

It was during that period that Adeeb cultivated a Muslim leader’s image. He became a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and is the vice-president of the All India Majlis-e-Mushawarat.

He was an independent by 2008,when he filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha. The Congress,which could not manage the numbers to get a candidate of its own elected,proposed his name instead and asked him to manage whatever votes the party was short of. As luck would have it,he was the only Muslim candidate. Armed with the support of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal,Adeeb sailed through. “The Muslim community became my constituency. I remain with them,irrespective of party affiliations,” he says.

By 2012,he was flirting with the Samajwadi Party,possibly having sensed the way his state would vote. He campaigned for the party but is now disappointed with Akhilesh Yadav’s government. “Mulayam had failed to keep his promises on Muslim issues such as releasing innocents from prison,” he says. “I trust no one now. The socialist movement is now a caste movement,while the Congress too has drifted from its ideologies.

He is intent on contesting the Lok Sabha polls. “Some parties have offered me a ticket,” he says.