M. Farooqui

M. Farooqui was born on March 15, 1920 in Ambehta, Saharanpur district in a modest Muslim household.[1][2][3] He was a descendant of a family of pirs who were teachers for the Mughal emperors.[4] His ancestor Hasan Askari was hanged by the British authorities in 1857, for having served as advisor to Bahadur Shah Zafar.[5]

He moved to Delhi in 1930 to attend school there.[1] His elder brother was jailed twice for participation the movement for independence.[5] In 1936, whilst a student at St. Stephen's College, M. Farooqui became involved in the struggle for Indian independence.[1][2][5] M. Farooqui attended the first meeting of the All India Students Federation (AISF), along with Jawaharlal Nehru and M. A. Jinnah.[2] During his student days he came in contact with Bahal Singh, under whose influence M. Farooqui became a Marxist.[4] He joined the Communist Party of India in 1940.[4] In 1940 he organized a strike at St. Stephen's College in protest against the arrest of Nehru.[1] Following the strike he was expelled from the College by Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Maurice Gwyer.[1][5][4] He would be later be issued a Tamra Patra award for his role in the independence movement.[1] His Delhi University Master's Degree was restored to him in 1989 at a special convocation chaired by Shankar Dayal Sharma.[2][3]

M. Farooqui was elected general secretary of AISF in 1941.[1] In 1941 he was arrested for the first time, for a speech given in Calcutta.[5] He was again arrested during the Quit India movement:[5] In 1946 he was arrested for having called for a boycott of the Victory Parade (held to celebrate Allied victory in World War II).[5]

The first CPI Delhi party conference held in 1944 elected M. Farooqui as the secretary of the Delhi unit.[6] He served in this position until 1971, when he switched to work at the national CPI Party Centre.[6] He was elected to the CPI National Council in 1958.[3] He joined the CPI National Executive in 1974, and the CPI National Secretariat in 1982.[6]

He became a member of the interim Metropolitan Council of Delhi in 1966. In 1990 he was included in the National Integration Council of the Government of India.[5]

Married to Vimla Kapoor (who took the name Vimla Farooqui), a fellow activist in AISF and later leader of the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW).[3][7] The couple had one son.[3] M. Farooqui was noted for humble life-style, living in an one-room apartment near Jama Masjid from 1952 onwards and travelling to work by public transport until 1988.[4] He would always dress in a white homespun pyjama and kurta.[3] In early 1997 Prime Minister H. D. Dewe Gowda offered him to become Governor of an Indian state of his choosing, but M. Farooqui declined the offer.[4]

As an AISF leader he befriended I. K. Gujral, who led the AISF Punjab unit, and the two would form a life-long friendship.[2] M. Farooqui was noted for fostering strong relations with a wide array of political leaders; such as V.P. Singh, G.K. Moopanar, Farooq Abdullah, Madan Lal Khurana and Murli Manohar Joshi.[4] He was the political mentor of future Afghan President Mohammad Najibullah, during the latter's stay for medical studies in India.[4]

On September 3, 1997 he suffered a heart attack whilst delivering a speech at a seminar of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in Delhi.[1][2] He died shortly thereafter at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.[1]