Syed Shahabuddin

Syed Shahabuddin (4 November 1935 – 4 March 2017) was an Indian politician and diplomat from Gaya, Bihar.

He began as a diplomat working for the Indian Foreign Service, but later became well known as one of the most articulate Muslim politicians of independent India.

He switched careers after the Emergency, at the time when the Congress began its decline and Hindu nationalism first started its ascent to power.

Shahabuddin was born on 4 November 1935 in Ranchi, which is the current capital of the state of Jharkhand.

In 1955, a student of B.N. College died after police fired on students who were protesting against a bus driver leading to agitations and demonstrations.

To protest against this matter, Shahabuddin founded an Action Committee which passed a resolution demanding an inquiry into the killing.

To pacify the protesters, the then Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru visited Patna.

In response, he led 20 thousand student protesters to the Patna Airport where they waved black flags.

Due to this activity, he found it difficult to get clearance to join the Indian Foreign Service.

However, he received clearance due to Nehru's intervention and endorsement.

Nehru wrote that his "participation in the disturbances was not politically motivated. It was an expression of his youthful exuberance."

He felt that the best way to honour Shahabuddin was by recruiting him to the Foreign Service.

Syed Shahabuddin served as a diplomat, an ambassador, and a politician.

His first posting, under Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, was as Acting Consul-General in New York.

He graduated from the Science College of the Patna University with a Physics honours degree in 1956 where he topped the matriculation exam.

In the same year, Shahabuddin came first in the first part of his L.L.M. degree.

Shahabuddin married Shaher Bano on 30 May 1958 and fathered one son and five daughters.

His only son, Nayyar Parvez, worked as a professor at Columbia University which is located in the United States of America.

He went on to serve in Rangoon, Burma, as Consul General in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and later as Ambassador to Venezuela and Algeria from 1969 to 1976.

At the time of his premature voluntary retirement in 1978, Shahabuddin was the Joint Secretary in charge of Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific in the Ministry of External Affairs, under External Affairs Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee.

In 1978, Shahabuddin left the Indian Foreign Service through a voluntary retirement to join politics.

The then Morarji Desai-led central government refused to give him a monthly pension of one thousand rupees as he did not complete 20 years in the service.

According to him, the then foreign minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee asked him thrice to reconsider his decision.

He served three terms from 1979-1996 as a member of the Parliament of India.

He was known for his leadership of the Muslim opposition to the Shah Bano case and the Demolition of Babri Masjid.

In 1979, one of the Janata Party's Member of Upper house of Parliament resigned and hence a seat became vacant.

The party nominated him for the seat.

In 1984, Shahabuddin lost the Rajya Sabha election to the Indian National Congress owing to alleged cross voting by the party legislators in favour of Communist Party of India.

Shahabuddin wrote to party leader Karpoori Thakur saying that legislators Satya Narayan Sinha and Munishwar Singh conspired to defeat him and demanded action against them.

Subsequently, Thakur sacked three legislators after Shahabuddin alleged that they had voted against him.

In 1985, Shahabuddin was elected to the Lok Sabha (the lower house of Indian parliament) as a candidate of the Janata Party.

He lost the seat to M.J. Akbar of the Indian National Congress in 1989.

In 2005, Parvez was found dead in his hotel room.

His relatives alleged that he was murdered.

His daughter, Parveen Amanullah, is a social activist turned politician who in 2014 left Janata Dal (United) and joined Aam Aadmi Party.

While studying in Patna University, Shahabuddin started an agitation for the formation of a students union in his university.

The movement was successful and he was elected to the committee of the union to draft its constitution.

Shahabuddin was elected as a candidate of the Communist Party of India's youth wing All India Students Federation.

But, according to his contemporary, former diplomat Muchkund Dubey, Shahabuddin was not a member of the Communist Party.

He died in March 2017 of long-term asthma, at a hospital near his residence in Delhi, India.