As Chidambaram and Tharoor face flak for Sunak comments, a look at Indian Muslims who held top constitutional posts

Sunak has history as Britain’s first Indian-origin Prime Minister after being elected unopposed as the new leader of the governing Conservative Party on Diwali as Penny Mordaunt withdrew from the race.

This means that the 42-year-old former chancellor, a devout Hindu, will walk through the door of 10 Downing Street in London. Sunak earlier met King Charles III in Buckingham Palace.

Besides being the first Hindu Prime Minister of Indian heritage, Sunak is also the youngest in around 200 years at age 42.

After Indian-origin Sunak was picked as the United Kingdom’s next prime minister, Chidambaram and Tharoor had said that “India should draw lessons from the UK” and hoped one day this practice would be adopted in the country.

The uncalled for and vicious comments by the Congress leaders only betray an ignorance, either genuine or wilful, of Indian history.

After all, several Muslims have held top constitutional posts in India. Let’s take a closer look:

Abdul Kalam

APJ Abdul Kalam served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007.

The immensely popular head of state known as ‘Missile man’ and the ‘people’s president’ hailed from a humble boatman family from Rameswaram and once sold newspapers as a student in the 1930s.

Born on 15 October, 1931, in the temple town of Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu in the southern tip of the country in a boat-maker’s family, Dr Kalam was hailed as a dreamer, visionary and genius who yearned to give India the cutting edge and make it technologically resilient by harnessing the vast untapped human resources.

The boy from the Mosque street in Ramanathapuram had humble beginnings studying first in a small town school in the 30s and had his high school upbringing in the taluk headquarters. He graduated from St Joseph College in Trichy.

Going in for aeronautics engineering course at the newly established Madras Institute of Technology (MIT) was a turning point for Dr Kalam. The only stint abroad for the thoroughly home-bred scientist was a four-month-visit to NASA in the USA.

Dr Kalam joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in 1958 and five years later joined the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

An aeronautics engineer from Madras Institute of Technology, Kalam was considered the brain of missile programme in India and as Chief Scientific Adviser to Vajpayee was also instrumental in the Pokhran nuclear test in 1998.

As president, Kalam utilised any opportunity that came to him to address students, especially school children, to dream big so that they became achievers in life. A bachelor, the former president was a veena player and was deeply interested in Carnatic music.

He was a vegetarian all his life.

Kalam in 2015 passed away after collapsing during a lecture at the IIM in Shillong.

His death was met with an outpouring of grief from people across the political spectrum.

Hamid Ansari

India’s 12th vice-president, Hamid Ansari was only the second person since 1962 to have held the second highest constitutional post in independent India for two, successive, full terms – from 2007 to 2017.

The first was India’s first vice-president Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, who had the chair from 1952 to 1962.

Ansari was born in Calcutta on 1 April, 1937, while his family hailed from Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh.

He completed his schooling from St. Edwards High School in Shimla, attended the St. Xavier’s College, University of Calcutta, and pursued MA in Political Science at the Aligarh Muslim University, where he also got his doctorate degree and worked as lecturer.

An academic and career diplomat who joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1961, Ansari’s name emerged as a surprise in the 2007 election when the Left parties, supporting the UPA-I from outside, proposed him and the Congress-led alliance accepted it.

Affable and well-read, Ansari had also held the post of Chairman of National Commission for Minorities before he became the vice-president.

A Padma Shree awardee, Ansari became Vice-Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University in May 2000 and held the post till March 2002.

Ansari was previously Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, Indian High Commissioner to Australia and Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Ansari is the grand-nephew of freedom fighter and former Congress president Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted in his farewell address to Ansari in the Rajya Sabha in August 2017, Ansari’s family “has been involved in public life for more than a hundred years".

Ansari is also a reputed West Asia scholar. He has authored a book– Travelling Through Conflict. He has written books on Palestine, Iraq and Iran.

Zakir Husain

The third Indian president, Dr Zakir Husain, made history as the first Muslim to occupy the top constitutional post in India.

An Indian economist and politician, he served in office from 13 May, 1967, to his death on 3 May 1969.

He was previously vice-president of India from 1962 to 1967

Husain was the first Indian president to pass away while in office. Later, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed would also pass away while holding his position.

Husain was born on 8 February, 1897, in Hyderabad State.

Hussain displayed a keen interest in politics from a very early age of his life.

Husain completed his early primary education in Hyderabad.

He finished his schooling at Etawah’s Islamia High School, then graduated in Economics from Christian Degree College, University of Lucknow.

After his graduation, he shifted to Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, then affiliated with the University of Allahabad, where he was a prominent student leader.

When Husain was 23 years old, he, along with a group of students and teachers, founded the National Muslim University – known today as Jamia Millia Islamia.

Jamia under Husain became closely linked to with the Indian freedom movement.

Husain also served as Bihar governor of Bihar from 1957 to 1962.

While in Germany, Husain was instrumental in bringing out the anthology of arguably the greatest Urdu poet Mirza Assadullah Khan “Ghalib” .

He was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, in 1963.

Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed

The fifth president of India, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed served in office from 1974 to 1977.

Ahmed was in office during the Emergency imposed by Sonia Gandhi.

As per India Today, Ahmed was born in 1905 in Delhi into an emancipated Muslim family.

The son of an army doctor from Assam, he graduated from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and obtained his tripos in history from Cambridge.

He met Jawaharlal Nehru in 1925 after which he jumped into the freedom struggle.

In 1942, he participated actively in the Quit India Movement for which he was arrested and sentenced to three and a half years of imprisonment.

Post Independence, Fakhruddin was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1952 and thereafter became Advocate-General of the Government of Assam. He was also elected to the Assam Legislative Assembly for two terms. He was twice elected to Lok Sabha, first in 1967 and again in 1971. As a Cabinet minister, he held diverse portfolios relating to Food and Agriculture, Cooperation, Education, Industrial Development, and Company Laws.

Ahmed was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Pristina, in Kosovo, in 1975.

Passing away while in office on 11 February, 1977, Ahmed was paid touching tributes from many, none more so than his personal valet.

“He was not only a good master,” he was quoted as saying by India Today, “but a good human being. He was always concerned about us, each one of us individually. That is why he was so great.”

The Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College at Barpeta, Assam, has been named in his honour.

Mohammad Hidayatullah

Mohammad Hidayatullah was the sixth vice-president of India and the 11th  Chief Justice of India (the first Muslim to head the apex court).

Hidayatullah also served as the country’s Acting President from 20 July, 1969, to 24 August, 1969.

He is the only Indian citizen in Independent India to have held the positions of Chief Justice of India, Vice President of India, and acting President of India.

Hidayatullah was also a scholar, educationist, and a linguist.

Hidayatullah was born on 17 December, 1905, in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul.

The son of prominent Urdu poet, government officer, and politician Khan Bahadur Hafiz Mohammad Wilayatullah, Hidayatullah was raised in an affluent, educated family.

A Phillips scholar, he pursued a B.A. in English, History, and Persian from Nagpur’s Morris College, for which he was awarded the Malak gold medal for academic excellence upon graduating in 1926.

As per News9, Hidayatullah returned to India after completing his graduation from Britain and began serving as an advocate in the High Court of Central Provinces and Berar in Nagpur in July, 1930. He started working as the Advocate General of the Central Provinces and Berar on2  August, 1943. He was selected as an additional judge at the High Court on 24 June, 1946.

Hidayatullah was the youngest Advocate General of Madhya Pradesh state in India in 1943, and also the youngest Chief Justice of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh in 1954.

The Nagpur High Court selected him as a judge in 1946. He held the same position till he became the Chief Justice of the High Court of Nagpur in 1954. He acquired this position till 1956 and was further appointed as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh from November 1956, as per News9.

Hindus top jobs in minority states

Punjab: Gopi Chand Bhargava, Bhim Sen Sachar and Ram Kishan

All three Hindu CMs – Gopi Chand Bhargava, Bhim Sen Sachar and Ram Kishan – were from Congress and  played a vital role in Indian freedom struggle, as per Indian Express.

Gopi Chand Bhargava

Bhargava was the first CM of undivided Punjab from August 1947 to April 1949.

He returned to  the post from October 1949 to June 1951 and then briefly in June-July 1964.

Hailing from Sirsa district, Bhargava was an MBBS graduate from Lahore. He along with his brother Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava, had started ‘Vidya Pracharini Sabha’ and participated in India’s freedom struggle.

He was Punjab CM from April to October 1949, from April 1952 to July 1953, and then from July 1953 to January 1956. He was the first elected CM of Punjab (in 1952), winning from Ludhiana city south. Amid allegations of corruption and conflict with his Cabinet colleagues, he had to resign once in July 1953 but was soon re-sworn as CM. Born in Peshawar (now in Pakistan), he had joined Indian National Congress during freedom struggle.

He had also spent some time in Pakistan after Partition but later shifted to India.

Bhim Sen Sachar

The veteran Congress leader and former chief minister of Punjab was arrested during the Emergency after writing a letter, along with six others, to the former prime minister, pleading for an end to the Emergency.

As per The Leaflet, Sachar wrote that the Emergency as having engendered an “atmosphere of fear and political repression” which led to the “common people of Delhi”, talking in “hushed tones” as if they were in a “communist societ[y>” with people being afraid of the “mid-night knock on their door”.

He was also the father of Justice Rajinder Sachar, the former chief justice of the Delhi High Court.

Ram Kishan

Born in Jhang, now in Pakistan, he later shifted to Jalandhar, and was Punjab CM from July 1964-July 1966, when he had to resign as Punjab Assembly was dissolved for reorganization of the state and creation of Haryana, as per Indian Express.

He was the last Hindu face as Punjab CM. He was given the honorific title of ‘Comrade’ due to his contribution in Indian freedom struggle. Veteran Congress leaders in Jalandhar remember him as a grassroots leader who used to commute on bicycle, as per the newspaper.

Congress rebuffs Tharoor, Chidambaram

On Tuesday, the grand old party said India does not need to draw lessons from any other country as many minorities have become the president and chief minister.

AICC general secretary of communications Jairam Ramesh said respecting diversity has been India’s hallmark for many years and cited the examples of Zakir Hussain, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and A P J Abdul Kalam who held the top constitutional position in the country for many years.

“In our country, Dr Zakir Hussain first became the President in 1967, then Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed became the President and Dr Abdul Kalam and if I keep giving you examples, Barkatullah Khan became chief minister and A R Antulay also became the chief minister,” Ramesh told reporters.

Asked about the Congress leaders’ remarks, he added, “You should ask them. I am only talking about Bharat Jodo Yatra and I would not speak about what other leaders have said. You should ask them on what they have said, I will not speak on any other leader’s remarks.”

“The Congress is a democratic party,” the Congress leader said, adding the Bharat Jodo Yatra is “blowing the trumpet of democracy” while the Bharatiya Janata Party is “blowing the guns of autocracy.”

“Those who get a mandate will become prime minister. Democratically, if someone is elected, we don’t have a problem. England’s party has made him the prime minister, we welcome it,” said Ramesh.

He said India has set an example across the world on celebrating diversity and respecting them.

“But, in the last eight years what we have seen, I don’t think we need to draw lessons from somewhere else. Our society is united in diversity and we have seen for many years that we respect diversity and give them equal rights and we don’t need to seek lessons from any other country. Our society will be strengthened through diversity,” he noted.

The Congress general secretary said if we suppress diversity and try to bring uniformity, we will not be able to strengthen our society. “Our strength is unity in diversity. I will go a step further, as we will remain united through diversity. Bharat Jodo Yatra’s purpose is this only, to unite the diversity of different languages, castes and religions.”

Ramesh said in Karnataka they met some people a few days ago who speak a language which does not have a script. “We need to strengthen them as they are also Indian citizens.”

Asked specifically about his mention of the last years of Modi’s rule, he said, that is because there is a huge difference between the thoughts of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi.

“Vajpayee was a product of the Nehru era and he was very impressed by Jawaharlal Nehru and that is the truth. But, Narendra Modi is busy only with one thing - how to erase the legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru and how to finish Teen Murti. Now there will be Teen Murti in 10, Downing Street also,” Ramesh said.

With inputs from agencies

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