Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi is an Indian politician and the current Union Minister of Minority Affairs. He was born on 15th October 1957 to AH Naqvi and Sakina Begum at Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, India.

Biography:

A student leader at the time of emergency, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, first contested the parliamentary elections in 1980 as an independent candidate, albeit with no avail. He won his first election in 1998 from Rampur constituency in Uttar Pradesh and was subsequently inducted to the Cabinet as Ministry of Information and Broadcasting with an additional charge of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. He was elected as a member of Rajya Sabha in 2002. He’s serving his third term in Rajya Sabha and is the current Union Minister of Minority Affairs. In 2019, he retained his position in the newly minted cabinet as Minster of Minority affairs.

Early Life:

He studied arts and mass communication. He has completed his Graduation Bachelor of Media Management from Asian Business School, Noida UP in 2007. He has attained a Bachelor of Arts from Global Open University Dimapur in 2011.

Naqvi married Seema Naqvi on 8 June 1983 and they have a son together.

Political Career:

Naqvi started his political career as the Student Leader. Naqvi was jailed at the age of 17 in 1975 during the period of Emergency at the Naini Central Jail in Maharashtra due to his political activities. As a student leader, he had also participated in the activities of the Janata Party.

Naqvi joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. Naqvi unsuccessfully contested elections for the legislative assembly of Uttar Pradesh in 1980 as a candidate for Janata Party.

He also contested elections as an independent candidate in the 1980 Lok Sabha elections from the Ayodhya constituency.

He was elected to the 1998 Lok Sabha from MP, Lok Sabha, and subsequently given the post of Minister of State for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting with an additional charge of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

In 1998, He was the Member of Twelfth Lok Sabha from Rampur constituency in Uttar Pradesh where he defeated Begum Noor Bano of INC with a margin of 5000 votes. In 2001, Naqvi was elected to MP, Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand.

In 2001, He was elected Vice-Chairman of Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT), Ministry of Culture, Government of India. In 2003, He was a Member of the Committee on Finance and was a Member of the Committee on Commerce.

In 2004, Mukhtar Abbas was a Member of the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. Mukhtar was elected Chairman of the Air Charter Operations Committee (Haj) from the Government of India and was the Member of the Court of Aligarh Muslim University.

In 2006, He was the Member of the Committee on External Affairs. In 2010, Mukhtar Abbaswas was elected to Member of Parliamentary, Rajya Sabha. He was a Member of the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Naqvi was a Member of Hindi Salahkar Samiti, Ministry of Civil Aviation.

In 2010, Naqvi was the Member of the Committee on Defence and was the Member of the Select Committee to the Wakf (Amendment) Bill. In 2014, Mukhtar was the Member of the Committee on Home Affairs and was the Chairman of the Committee on Papers Laid on the Table.

He became Minister of State for Minority Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs on 26 May 2014 in Narendra Modi Ministry. He was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2016. After the resignation of Najma Heptulla on 12 July 2016, he got independent charge of the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

Mukhtar Abbaswas Naqvi was the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Minority Affairs since 2017. He took oath as Cabinet Minister in Narendra Modi’s cabinet on 30 May 2019 and continued with the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

Views:

Congress:

According to Naqvi, a “baseless” campaign had been started by the Congress party to prevent Indian Muslims from joining the Bharatiya Janata Party. Naqvi has also said that he does not harbor the allegations of Congress that as BJP came to power, there was nobody to cause riots against the minority community.

Muslims:

Naqvi feels that Muslims don’t desert other Muslims if they are given important posts in the Bharatiya Janata Party. For the party to increase support amongst the Muslims; he opines that they should feel that they are “equal citizens of this country”, and also “understand that the bill on Muslim Personal Law will not take away their right to practice their religion”. In addition, the party should also make them aware of the works done by the Vajpayee government.

Naqvi has also said that there is “no justification” for the 2002 Gujarat riots. In November 2015, when actor Aamir Khan said that he felt of leaving the country, Naqvi defended by saying that he had made the comment “in a hurry or maybe under influence from others”.

BJP and RSS:

Naqvi has said that Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh are two “separate entities” and each of them has different views on different issues. According to him, RSS is a nationalist organization and not an “anti-national organization”.

Books:

Naqvi has written three books – Syah (1991), Danga (1998), and Vaisali (2008)