Azam Khan and his rising stock

If life on the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus had not taken the unexpected turns that it did for him during a particularly volatile phase of Indian politics, Mohammad Azam Khan would probably have been teaching law at the institution today. The fact that he is not, is testimony to his ability to grab his chances.

The irascible 64-year-old politician is the second most powerful politician in Uttar Pradesh. A trusted aide of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, the outspoken Azam Khan has weathered many storms over the years to emerge stronger from each blow.

"I wanted to become a lecturer and settle down in Aligarh. It was in my LLM final year that I was elected general secretary of the AMU Students' Union. A movement for protecting the minority character of the university was on at that point and I was in the forefront. Emergency was also imposed in the country. I had no option but to be politically active," says the Rampur-born man who is known to possess a sharp tongue and a mercurial temper.

It was Chaudhary Charan Singh who catapulted Azam Khan into the hurly-burly of electoral politics. "When I came out after spending a year and nine months in Banaras jail, Charan Singh asked me to contest the Lok Sabha elections," he says. "He was of the view that I would be the right candidate for Rampur because it is a Muslim-dominated constituency. But I was not old enough. Rajendra Sharma got the ticket and he represented Rampur in the Lok Sabha for two terms."

Azam Khan got his chance in 1977. Although he failed to win, it was not a wasted effort. He was up against the Nawab of Rampur. “I lost my first election by only 1133 votes but I got the love and affection of the people. My fight was against powerful people and the electorate warmed up to me instantly."

He has continued to receive the support of Rampur ever since. Of the ten Assembly elections that Khan has contested, he has lost only two. In 1977, he was defeated by Manzoor Ali Khan of the Congress. In 1996, he lost to the Congress' Afroz Ali Khan.

Says Haq Rampuri, in charge of Azam Khan’s office in his Assembly constituency and closely associated with the leader since 1971: “He is a born politician. He has been politically active since his high school days. He led a strike while he was in the Sunder Lal Inter College."

Father of two sons, Azam Khan plays badminton to keep himself fit and loves to eat tahri (a yellow rice and potato dish popular in western Uttar Pradesh).

Haq asserts that apart from his strength of character, what has kept Azam Khan going is his ability to take quick and effective decisions. "He never compromises with what he does not believe in, even if that means paying a political price," says the aide.

"He was politically isolated when he crossed swords with Mulayam's right hand man Amar Singh. But he eventually emerged victorious and was proved right. He took a stand on the issue of Kalyan Singh,” says Haq.

Rampur-based journalist Mohd Fahim Qureshi says: “Despite being short-tempered, he is a good human being. Rampur city has benefited from him. It now has uninterrupted power for 24 hours. But look at the villages of Rampur district, where there is power for merely two hours a day."

On Azam Khan's differences with Amar Singh, Haq says: "The main reason was that both were strong leaders of the party and Amar Singh could not digest this. He wanted to be the de facto number two. He wanted to sideline every senior Samajwadi leader, be it Janeshwar Mishra, Beni Prasad Verma or Raj Babbar."

Samajwadi Party leader Kamal Farooqui describes Azam Khan as “a very positive politician who does not hide his feelings". He adds: "Not only does Azam Khan believe in making effective interventions in society as a whole, but he also takes up issues concerning the Muslim community very seriously."

Azam Khan also has a clean reputation. Says senior journalist Nafees Ahmed: "He is known to be honest. It is said that he always returns all unspent election funds to the party."

His power, says Ahmed, stems from the fact that Mulayam’s family considers him to be their lucky mascot. "When Azam Khan deserted the party, it suffered a severe drubbing. In the last Assembly election, with the senior Muslim leader back in the fold, the party won hands down. It is not without reason that netaji (Mulayam Singh) himself went to Azam Khan’s residence to invite him back to the party.”

It is because of this special status that Azam Khan enjoys in Mulayam's family that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has had to withdraw several decisions that did not go down well with the Rampur MLA.

Azam Khan, known for speaking his mind, minces no words in criticising the Congress: “In Assam, the government took things lightly. As reported in some newspapers, it did not send the army to control the riots because they wanted to teach a lesson to the locals. It is this mentality that is the biggest threat to the country."

He also questions the intentions of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement. “How can anyone who does not have faith in Parliament, the Constitution and the Judiciary and regards himself above all these institutions be a nationalist? This is not Egypt or Libya. We have the rule of law here.”

He believes that “the biggest issue for Muslims is education. Education alone can give the community self-confidence. It is because of this I am doing everything for Mohd Ali Johar University”.

Azam Khan does have his detractors. Says social worker Mohd Junaid: "Rampur has been stagnating in his charge. The roads are bad, business is floundering and he is interested in serving only his own and the university's interests."