AS HE STEPS INTO HIS SEVENTIETH YEAR
Happy birthday, Arif Mohammad Khan ! Your contribution to rationalising the Hindu-Muslim discourse is truly commendable as you dispel distorted notions of concerned parties about contentious issues and foster unity, amity and peace among them. Your interpretation of the Islamic scripture helps illumine Muslims about their duties to the nation and highlights where clerics have misinterpreted passages to their mischievous political advantage and to the disadvantage of the larger community. Your stand on the Shah Bano Case and subsequent resignation from ministerial position in 1986 is a landmark happening in contemporary parliamentary politics and even today serves as an object lesson for politicians to follow when it comes to taking a stand on matters of conviction and conscience against enormous party pressure. Your consistent progressive stand on Muslim social issues such as the Triple Talaq and your ideological campaign for Islamic reformation has endeared you to millions of your countrymen even as it has irked an equal number of foolish adherents to dogma and age-old regressive policies. Your work for physically challenged people has clearly outlined your actual concern for humanity as opposed to mere voiced concern of so many others. Your exhortation to abolish the All India Muslim Personal Law Board is proof of your real concern for the teeming millions of your community who suffer from the restrictions imposed on them by such communal bodies and fail in accordance to join the mainstream of humanity in India in real earnest. Happy birthday yet again ! May God grant you a long, healthy and fruitful life in the service of Mother India !
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo : Governor Arif Mohammad Khan (courtesy, Wikipedia)
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