Arif Khan, who advocated abolition of Muslim Personal Law Board, becomes Kerala governor

coastaldigest.com web desk
September 1, 2019

Newsroom, Sept 1: Arif Mohammed Khan, a controversial Muslim leader, who advocated abolition of All India Muslim Personal Law Board, and three other senior BJP leaders were appointed Governors on Sunday while Kalraj Mishra was shifted from Himachal Pradesh to the key state of Rajasthan where the Congress is in power.

While Khan heads to Kerala Raj Bhavan, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister B S Koshiyari (Maharashtra), former Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya (Himachal Pradesh) and BJP Tamil Nadu chief Tamilisai Soundararajan (Telangana) have also been appointed as Governors by President Ram Nath Kovind. However, the government has not named a Governor for Karnataka even as the term of incumbent Vajubhai has ended. 

A former Congress leader Khan had in 1986 walked out of the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet over the Shah Bano case. He also has been the most vocal supporter of the controversial law against Triple Talaq by the Narendra Modi government.

He quit the cabinet when the government reversed Supreme Court's Shah Bano verdict granting alimony to a divorced Muslim woman. A staunch critic of Shariah, he had also asked the Congress to abolish Muslim Personal Law. 

Over the years, he has stuck to his conviction that secular parties blatantly playing the Muslim card would only harm the interests of the community.

Khan hit the headlines recently when he said PM Modi quoted a former Congress leader as having said it was not the duty of their party to uplift Muslims and “if they want to lie in the gutter let them be”. The remark the Prime Minister referred to, Khan claimed, was made by PV Narasimha Rao, then a Union minister.

"6-7 years ago, during a TV interview, I was asked whether any pressure was brought upon me to take back my resignation (in connection with Shah Bano case). I told them after resigning, I disappeared from my house." Khan added, “I further said, next morning at Parliament, I met Arun Singh who repeatedly told me I was correct morally but this would cause a lot of inconvenience to the party. Mr Narishma Rao told me ‘tum bahut ziddi ho. Shah Bano ne bhi apna stand badal liya hai’.”

In an interview with a national news portal, Khan was all praise for the Prime Minister after the BJP swept to power and PM Modi assured of taking everyone along. 

Khan began his career as a student leader and became a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly at the age of 26. He later joined the Indian National Congress and became a member of the Lok Sabha in 1980 and in 1984.

From energy to civil aviation, Khan has held several portfolios. After quitting the Congress, he joined the Janata Dal and BSP. In 2004, he joined the BJP but left three years later, complaining that he felt ignored in the party. 

Comments

abdullah
 - 
Monday, 2 Sep 2019

  BJP loves such name sake muslims who have sold their Iman for money / position.    He is not less than Mir Jaafar.   He is family member of MJ Akbar, Shahnawaz, Mukhtar ansari etc etc who have no respect by any muslims as they are anti islam.   

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News Network
June 11,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 11: A love triangle took a violent turn when a final-year engineering student was assaulted by both her current and former lovers. She's now battling for her life in the ICU, police said. 

For the 22-year-old woman, who lives in Sidedahalli, it was a case of fast-changing relationships. She broke up with a fellow student Babith, 21, a few months ago after having dated him for four years. Four months ago, she started seeing another collegemate named Rahul, 22, and everything seemed fine. 

On June 7, she went to Rahul's house, ostensibly for his birthday party, after informing her parents. Babith got wind of it and barged into Rahul's house. The trio got into an argument, and Rahul abused and assaulted her. 

The woman decided to leave him, and went with Babith to his house in Chikkabanavara, North Bengaluru. But things didn't end there. Babith picked an argument with her. Things became so bad that he attacked her with a helmet. 

He then panicked and called her parents, asking them to take her home. When her parents arrived, they found only Babith, his mother and sister in the house. Babith's family directed them to a bedroom where she was lying motionless, with her face being badly wounded. 

When her parents demanded to know what had happened, nobody responded. They took her to a hospital where her condition remains serious. A while later, Babith came to the hospital and gave her parents the key of her scooter. He told them what had happened and allegedly warned them against filing a police complaint. 

Her mother, however, filed a complaint with the jurisdictional Soladevanahalli police. According to her, Babith had fought with her daughter at their house for not taking his phone calls six months ago. 

Shashikumar N, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North), said both the men had been arrested and that further investigations are underway. 

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Agencies
July 5,2020

Dubai, Jul 5: Three Indians, who were repatriated on a chartered flight from the UAE on Friday, have been held in the state of Rajasthan after officials seized gold worth Dh2.2million from them, the government announced on Saturday.

They are likely to be placed under arrest along with 11 others, who were repatriated from Saudi Arabia, from whom gold worth Dh5.5million was seized, a statement from the government tweeted by Press Information Bureau in Rajasthan said.

The gold bars were hidden in emergency lamps, photos attached to the tweets showed.

The 14 passengers had arrived at the Jaipur International Airport by two chartered flights.

They were intercepted by the Customs team at the airport and 31.9kg of gold valued at Rs156,759,820 (Dh7.7million) concealed in the baggage was recovered from these passengers.

Three passengers arrived from Ras Al Khaimah by Spice Jet Flight SG9055 and 12 gold bars/bricks weighing 9.3kg valued at Rs.45,761,100 (Dh2.2million) were recovered from them, the statement said.

The Indian Consulate in Dubai confirmed to Gulf News that the flight was chartered by a private company for repatriating its employees.

It is suspected that the passengers were used as carriers to smuggle gold.

The other 11 accused had arrived from Riyadh and 22.65kg of gold bars, predominantly with Suisse markings, valued at Rs110,998,720 (Dh5.5million) were recovered from them.

“The said recovered gold bars have been seized under Section 110 of the Customs Act, 1962. The said passengers are being interrogated and are likely to be placed under arrest in terms of section 104 of the Customs Act, 1962,” the statement added.

Indian media had earlier reported similar cases in which stranded Indians were apparently lured to be carriers for smuggling gold on repatriation flights from various countries.

A spike in gold smuggling attempts using Indians getting repatriated after losing jobs was also reported from the Indian state of Kerala.

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News Network
March 29,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 29: Twenty more people were

detected with coronavirus in Kerala on Saturday, taking the total number of those undergoing treatment for the deadly infection to 181, Health Minister K K Shailaja said.

While Kannur reported eight cases, Kasaragod 7, Thiruvananthapuram, Ernkulam, Thrissur, Palakad and Malappuram reported one case each, Shailaja said in a statement here.

Of the 20 people, 18 had come from abroad and two others had been infected through contact.

The man found positive here was in the isolation ICU of the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College hospital, while one positive case from Ernakulam was a health worker.

The samples of four persons who were under treatment at Pathnamthitta were found negative.

At least, 1,41,211 people are under observation across the state, the Minister addd.

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