The Hindu : Arif Khan all set to join BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 20, 2004

National

National

Arif Khan all set to join BJP

By Javed M. Ansari

NEW DELHI, FEB. 19. The wheel has come full circle. Two years after he quit the Bahujan Samaj Party protesting against its decision to form a coalition government with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh, Arif Mohammed Khan, former Union Minister, appears all set to join the saffron party. Indications are that he will be inducted into the BJP at the Prime Minister's Lucknow rally later this month.

Mr. Khan, who narrowly lost the 1999 Lok Sabha elections to a BJP candidate, today sought to dispel the impression that he was joining the party on the eve of the elections to gain entry into Parliament. "I am not interested in contesting the elections. My main concern is to bridge the gulf between the two communities," he said.

The former Minister spent considerable time and energy in Gujarat in the aftermath of the communal conflagration and plans to concentrate on the State to help bring the Muslims and Hindus together. "I more interested in establishing a relationship with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh so that together we can work to heal the wounds and rebuild the trust between the communities,"

Mr. Khan quit the Rajiv Gandhi Government in 1986, following differences over the Shah Bano case, and launched a campaign against the fundamentalist elements within the minority community. He, however, sought to build bridges with the Muslim community by targeting the BJP, especially when he was an MP in 1998. Today, he believes that the Sangh Parivar alone can hold the nation together. "The secular parties just cannot do the job; they have lost all credibility,'' he says.

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