÷Writer -Dr. K. Vikram Rao
♂÷A scion of a feudal warlord family of Awadh (Uttar Pradesh), Professor Irfan Habib combines in him the qualities of a Marxist Taluqdar and a rabid Islamic fundamentalist. His words and actions prove his qualities, Precisely therefore, he vulgarly and indecently disrupted the speech by chief guest Kerala Governor and eminent, secular and patriotic Sunni, Mohd. Arif Khan, at the Indian Historic Congress at Kannur (Kerala) on 28/12/2019. Every gentleman and academic scholar would have been aghast at the horrific scene at the inaugural ceremony of the august conference of researchers and intellectuals. By insulting the invited governor and not allowing him to express his views, Irfan Habib has only shown in ultimate analysis that he is only a communal Muslim who refused to tolerate brother Muslim making secular observations. Habib is a firm believer in the atheism of Karl Marx and an adherent of the religion of Prophet Mohommad.
Irfan Habib was awarded the Padmabhushan by the Sonia Gandhi – led UPA government in 2005 for his wide distortions of Vedic history. Habib was honoured by Sardar Manmohan Singh , who had famously once said that Muslims had the first claim over India’s resources and finances. Habib is a product of Aligarh Muslim University which Jinnah had called “the arsenal of Pakistani thoughts”. The AMU was founded by Sir Syed Ahmed who had supported the British Imperialists against the Nationalist Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, during his first war of Independence in 1857. It was Professor Habib, who along with another distortionist of Indian History, Mrs Romila Thapar, had lied about Ayodhya. Eminent archeologist KK Muhammed had through his research confirmed that both Habib and Thapar had concealed facts that Babri Masjid was built on the remnants of a Hindu temple. In fact, earlier the Indian Historical Congress was compelled by Prof. Habib to demand that there is no need for excavation at the Ram Janma Bhoomi in Ayodhya. The court overruled Habib.
The behavior on the stage during the IHC session by Prof Habib was uncouth for an academic, unbecoming for an intellectual and disgraceful for a scholar. Such an act would have passed well for a street urchin or fanatic.
Now, coming to the other Muslim.
Khan Mohd. Arif Khan, governor of Kerala, is an ideological rebel and a political iconoclast. As a young leader of AMU students, he resisted Indira Gandhi’s fascist emergency (1975-77). He was an architect of the formidable Janata Party government of UP as its Minister in 1977.
Disgusted with Charan Singh’s sectarian politics, Arif had opposed the Janata Party’s candidate in the Azamgarh Lok Sabha byelections of 1978, which led to the victory of Indira Gandhi’s nominee Mohsina Kidwai. It was a catalyst event which led to Indira’s return to power. With his indomitable rebellious spirit, Arif kicked his Minister’s job in Rajiv Gandhi’s government in 1986 when Congress government compromised its secular ideology and scrapped the Supreme Court order on compensation to a Muslim female divorcee (Shah Bano).
Therefore, an Islamic fundamentalist like Irfan Habib should be the last person to question the secular credentials of a devout Sunni, called Arif Mohd. Khan.
÷Do..K.Vikram Rao is Nationl President of IFWJ ÷
