In April this year, the Congress party quietly appointed Fairoz Khan, a MeToo accused, as State Working President of Pradesh Youth Congress Jammu and Kashmir. Khan had quit as the president of the National Students’ Union of India after sexual harassment accusations surfaced against him in 2018.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi approved the appointment of Fairoz Khan as the new State Working President of Youth Congress Jammu and Kashmir. This decision was announced on April 12, 2022, by Srinivas BV, National President of the Indian Youth Congress.
Not only this, but recently, with the much-awaited Jammu and Kashmir election round the corner, the Congress party also inducted Fairoz Khan into the Jammu and Kashmir Campaign Committee. The campaign committee comprises 11 leaders with the PCC president and working president being its permanent invitees.
Interestingly, Fairoz Khan was the former president of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI). He had been sworn in as the president of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) on 22 June 2017. Khan, however, resigned as NSUI president in 2018 after he was accused of sexually harassing his party colleague. On October 16, 2018, Rahul Gandhi, the then Congress party president, accepted Khan’s resignation after he was accused of sexual harassment.
NSUI president Fairoz Khan quits after sexual harassment charges, Rahul Gandhi accepts resignation. (PTI)
— NDTV (@ndtv) October 16, 2018
NSUI president Fairoz Khan accused of seeking sexual favours for political posts
Notably, in 2018, when #MeToo had gained momentum in India, a party worker from Chhattisgarh had alleged that Khan had sexually harassed her, as well her sister and some other women activists of the Congress students’ wing.
The woman had said that Khan “used to sexually harass young women” for political appointments in the NSUI.
The victim met the then Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and other party leaders in June that year and filed a complaint against Khan.
Then in September of that year, she lodged a police complaint against Fairoz Khan at the Parliament Street police station in New Delhi.
Subsequently, the Congress party, which was under pressure to take demonstrative action against Khan in the wake of #MeToo campaign, formed a three-person committee to investigate the matter.
BJP leader Amit Malviya, on the other hand, took to Twitter to share a copy of the letter the victim wrote to the SHO of Parliament Street PS in September of that year, in which she claimed that the Congress party had formed an investigation panel for ‘namesake’ and in reality had been shielding the accused. She claimed that it had been more than 80 days since she informed Congress about Khan, but no action had been taken against him. She also asked for protection because she was concerned for her and her family’s safety.
NSUI chief Fairoz Khan’s victim writes to Parliament Street SHO for protection. She alleges that 80 days after she raised the issue with Congress leadership, no action has been taken. Rahul Gandhi must take out a candle march and explain why women are not safe in Congress! pic.twitter.com/jq92JjUBiT
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) September 11, 2018
The complainant in her letter mentioned that “The National President has not only mentally tortured me to compromise but he has also mentally tortured my younger sister to come to his room. He has also asked my friend to meet him at his private residence at night. There are many other young female activists who also faced the same but they have refrained from coming out publicly so that no other girl is molested or mentally tortured.”
The committee Congress subsequently formed to investigate the issue comprised of the then All India Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev, Lok Sabha member Deepender Hooda and the party’s national media panellist Ragini Nayak to investigate the complaint. Until December 2018, the news kept doing the rounds that the panel is yet to submit its report. After that, there was no news whatsoever about any investigation that the panel carried out against Fairoz Khan.
Merely weeks later after the accusation surfaced, Khan was seen on the posters of a ‘Girls’ Convention’ held in Indore. Pictures (which took Twitter by the storm) of him posing with the heavyweights of the Congress party- Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi also surfaced questioning his closeness to the party’s top leadership. Twitterati lashed out shaming the then-party president, Rahul Gandhi who constantly sings the song of women empowerment but shamelessly associates with people accused of sexual harassment.
In October 2018, a letter also surfaced addressed to party president Rahul Gandhi demanding that he take urgent action against NSUI President Fairoz Khan and also explain the sham investigation regarding allegations against Chirag Patnaik who was involved with the party’s IT cell.
Khan, on his part, denied the allegations but stated that he was willing to resign in order to protect the party’s reputation. Rahul Gandhi, owing to all the external pressure exerted on him and his party, accepted Khan’s resignation on October 16, 2018.
Now, after nearly three and a half years of silence, when people had almost forgotten about Fairoz Khan and the controversy surrounding him, the party quietly inducted Khan as the new State Working President of the Youth Congress Jammu and Kashmir. According to reports, Khan’s appointment was approved by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi.
