Oldest MP, a leading voice on Muslim affairs, SP’s Shafiqur Rahman Barq passes away

SP president Akhilesh Yadav was among the first to express grief over the death of the veteran leader, calling it “very tragic”.

Feroz Khan, an SP state working committee member and close confidant of Barq, told The Indian Express that his body was being brought to Sambhal from Moradabad. “He was critical for the last few days,” Khan said, adding that Barq’s death was “a huge loss for the people of Sambhal”.

Barq, who was married to the late Quresha Begum, is survived by his son, Mamluk Ur Rahman, a Muslim cleric in Sambhal. Barq’s grandson Ziaur Rahman is currently an MLA from the Kundarki constituency in the Moradabad district.

Barq was born in 1930 in Sambhal’s Deepa Sarai to parents who were daily-wage workers. He studied at Agra University, before returning to Sambhal. Having learnt medicine as a doctor’s assistant, he started being consulted by patients suffering from minor ailments.

He began his political career after joining ranks with socialist leaders, including SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh.

He was first elected as an MLA from Sambhal in 1974 on the symbol of the Bharatiya Kranti Dal. In the subsequent elections of 1977, 1985 and 1989, he was elected from the same seat on different symbols. In 1990-1991, he was a member of the UP Cabinet.

Barq’s political career took a leap after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. An SP leader said that post the demolition, Barq “became vocal on the Muslim cause in UP and across the country”. He also joined the Babri Action Committee.

In 1996, he contested his first parliamentary election from Moradabad, and was elected to the Lok Sabha on an SP ticket. He was reelected from the same seat in 1998 and 2004.

In 2008, he switched to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and won the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Sabhal. He then returned to the SP and unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when he lost to the BJP’s Satyapal Singh Saini by a narrow margin of 5,000-odd votes. In 2019, he won the seat for the fifth time, defeating the BJP’s Parmeshwar Lal Saini by 1.74 lakh votes.

In 2019, Barq was in the headlines when he objected to the raising of “Vande Mataram” slogans in Parliament by BJP MPs as members took oath.

In August 2022, he was booked for sedition after he allegedly defended the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, equating it with India’s own freedom struggle. The SP MP claimed he had been misinterpreted.

In January 2023, Barq was in the spotlight again after he praised BSP chief Mayawati and raised concerns over the safety of Muslims in India.

A deeply religious man, his aides said he “lived a simple life as per teachings in the Quran”, and kept abreast with news despite his advancing years. “He talked about world politics, Indian politics, Islam and a wide range of topics. He also read a variety of literature from across the world,” an SP leader in Sambhal said.