HVK Archives: Goal saver on different turf
Goal saver on different turf - The Observer
K V Lakshmana
()
January 3, 1998
Title: Goal saver on different turf
Author: K V Lakshmana
Publication: The Observer
Date: January 3, 1998
Aslam Sher Khan, former Narasimha Rao aide in the Prime
Minister's Office as a junior minister, represents a new trend
among minority leaders - that of embracing Hindutva forces with a
hope it will protect and promote interests of the Muslims.
Joining the BJP in the presence of party President L K Advani,
for the likes of Khan, is also part of another worrying trend for
the Congress.
What could be a more ironic turning point than Khan, catapulted
into politics by none other than Rajiv Gandhi to take on his
widow Sonia Gandhi in the electoral arena.
Khan is better known for his famous goal line save that won the
country an Olympic hockey gold, way back when India still
mattered in the world of hockey.
Khan, 45, was paraded by the BJP in front of the press last week
as a prize catch. His entry into the Sangh parivar has definitely
given the BJP and its campaign managers much to talk about how
its principal adversary Congress was disintegrating and how even
the minorities were altering their views about the BJP.
Being in the Congress till recently Khan had naturally opposed
the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya and today swears by the
BJP and hopes that "there will no more be any Mandir-Masjid
jhagda."
Moments after joining the BJP, the former Olympian and former
Rajiv said he minority communities were gradually realising the
false campaign against the BJP.
Aslam Sher Khan, who represented Betul in Madhya Pradesh, began
his political life from the State Youth Congress of which he was
an office bearer. Educated at Sofia college in Bhopal, Aslam
caught the eye of Rajiv Gandhi, who gave him first real break in
politics by fielding him as one of the party candidates from
Madhya Pradesh.
It was during Narasimha Rao's tenure as the Prime Minister that
he brought the former hockey star into his office as a minister
of state for wooing back the minorities to the Congress fold.
Large sections of the minorities had shifted away from the
Congress following the December 6, 1992 demolition of Babri
Masjid by frenzied kar sevaks of the Sangh parivar.
Today, Aslam Sher Khan continues his assignment, but for the BJP.
That he would quit the Congress was a foregone conclusion as he
had dissociated himself from the Congress led by Kesri. Like the
others who quit the Congress this time, Aslam also castigated
Kesri's style of functioning.
Considered close to Congress veteran Arjun Singh, the former
minister has perhaps ensured his return to Lok Sabha from Betul
by jumping the ship at the eleventh hour.
Only Betul voters would decide in two months time from now
whether they would listen to Rajiv loyalist or Rajiv's widow
Sonia Gandhi.
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