At the 80th session of Indian History Congress, the Marxist Historian Irfan Habib had shamefully tried to heckle the Kerala governor, Arif Mohammad Khan and disrupt his speech. The left-leaning historian had tried to physically disrupt the speech of the governor, even as people in the audience shouted slogans against the governor. Now, the Aligarh Society of History and Archaeology (ASHA) has issued a statement in support of the Leftist Historian and playing the victim by claiming that his ‘right to democratic dissent’ was stifled.
The statement issued by the Aligarh Society claims that “soon after the Presidential Address delivered by Professor Amiya Kumar Bagchi (Kolkata), Mr Arif Muhammad Khan was called to deliver his speech. Instead of delivering an address the Honourable Governor started not only defending the CAA but also accusing all those who did not agree with CAA as “Pakistani” agents who never had the courage to criticise the wrong policies of the Gandhi family, specially Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Along with all those who opposed CAA as ani-nationals, he went along to suggest that this could not be understood by the people of Kerala who never experienced the partition of India and creation of Pakistan”.
At this point of time, there is no video of the Kerala governor calling anyone a Pakistani agent. According to tweets posted by the official Twitter account of the Kerala governor, Irfan Habib had made some points on the CAA. After that, the governor tried to address those points during his address, but at that time Habib rose from his seat and tried to physically stop the governor from speaking.
The note says that while Governor Arif Mohammad Khan was delivering his speech, 2 research ‘students’ of JNU stood up with placards that read ‘No to CAA’ Along with them a few senior professors from CAS Department of History AMU and Delhi University stood up asking the Governor to “refrain from what he was doing”. The statement further claims, “Soon a host of researchers from JNU, AMU, DU and Jamia were detained. Fortunately, they were all released within an hour. An attempt was also made to detain a senior professor from Aligarh”.
It then claims that Professor Irfan Habib, who was there on the dais in the capacity of the outgoing member of the IHC (Indian History Congress), got up to ask VC Kannur University, Professor Gopinath Ravindran to “stop what was happening”. It was at this time that ASHA claims that Habib was manhandled by the Kerala governor’s security detail.
The statement issued by ASHA further played the victim and said that they condemn the “stifling of democratic dissent” and “laud Professor Irfan Habib, Padma Bhushan and Professor Emeritus (AMU) for raising his voice against the rising intolerance to democratic norms”. The statement also said that Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan was claiming an attack on him instead of apologising the Irfan Habib. “The members of Aligarh Society of History and Archaeology [ASHA] also condemn the stifling the democratic voices and our right to protest. We further condemn the way the Constitution of India is being effectively dismantled through Acts like CAA”, the statement said.
Interestingly, the statement makes no mention of the fact that Leftist Historian Irfan Habib had indulged in downright shameful conduct by objected to Arif Mohammad Khan quoting Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. He had said that the governor should quote Nathuram Godse instead. To this, the governor had replied, “is Maulana Azad your personal property? He is ours.” The historian even pushed the governor’s ADC and security officer, who had tried to prevent him from reaching Khan.
Further, it is difficult to fathom how ASHA has failed to realise that the Governor is bound to have a security detail and Irfan Habib breaching that security will be dealt with appropriately.
This vilification of Arif Mohammad Khan, however, comes as no surprise. KK Muhammad, the Archeologist who was vilified and attacked by Leftists and Islamists for his findings in the Ram Mandir case had written in his autobiography that anyone who did not agree with Irfan Habib was automatically branded as a Hindutvavadi. In the book, Muhammad details how he was hounded by Irfan Habib because he was not ‘secular enough’.
Read: Easier to convince a dacoit than a communist: Read what Dr KK Muhammad said at Mangaluru Lit Fest
According to Swarajya, in the forward to his book, Prof. M G S Narayanan too writes about Prof. Habib. According to Prof. MGS, Prof. Habib has poisoned not just history but culture and social life by his narrow groupism, nepotism and treachery. At the same time, he writes that Prof. Habib is a hard-working person but crafty. His group would threaten, cheat and would be part of various intrigues. Anyone who criticised this group would be branded a Hindutvawadi and a communalist. That the Left cabal has now trained its guns against Kerala governor Arif Muhammad Khan now comes as no surprise.
