‘Modi has as much right to come to Aligarh as I have to go to Delhi,’ says Prof Irfan Habib

The press conference focused chiefly on three issues: the alleged attack on Khan by Habib, the ongoing tussle between the state government over the powers of the governor as the chancellor of the universities in Kerala, and the Kerala government’s latest ordinance on Lokayukta.

In an interview with South First, Habib responded to the claims and allegations by the Governor against him, and sought to clear the air on the incidents that led to controversy during the 80th edition of the Indian History Congress, held in Kannur in 2019.

‘Did not attack, pointed out a factual error’

Responding to the accusation by Khan that his speech at the History Congress was “unauthorised”, Habib said he was the vice-president of the Indian History Congress, and was called upon to make a speech of barely seven minutes and to propose the installation of the General President, Professor Amiya Kumar Bagchi.

The historian, who has been bestowed with the Padma Bhushan — India’s third-highest civilian award — by the Indian government for his contribution to academia, refuted the allegation that he tried to attack the Governor.

The 91-year-old historian said, “I made no reference to any other matter in my short speech, nor did I ‘attack’ the Governor in it or at any time later.”

Asked whether he told the Governor to quote Godse instead of Gandhi in the 2019 event, as alleged by Khan, Habib clarified: “Mr Khan, in the long speech that he was delivering in his capacity as chancellor of the host university, went beyond welcoming the delegates and the subject of history, and began criticising the opponents of the Citizenship Amendment Act.”

He added “In the course of this, he read out a well-known fabrication of Abul Kalam Azad’s speech, in which he has been represented as denouncing Indian Muslims. So, I asked him on the stage why he was not quoting Godse. This comment of mine Mr Khan repeated on the mike, which further agitated the audience.”

Other allegations

On Monday, the Kerala Governor opined: “Irfan Habib is the icon of the ideology that uses force against those who have a different view.”

He also said in the press conference that Habib worked in an employees’ union at Aligarh Muslim University, where he learned trade-union militancy. 

Habib responded to the claim by saying that the Governor was “welcome to have his own opinion about my views and beliefs”. 

However, he admitted that he had worked with the AMU Employees’ Union, which had membership mainly from the low-paid and daily wage employees of the varsity. He said he worked among them for six decades but did not hold any office in the union.

The Kerala Governor had also alleged that the lack of protest during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to AMU was because Habib and others were aware that the state was ruled by Yogi Adityanath.

Responding to this, Habib said, “I expect Modi to have as much right to go to Aligarh as I have to go to Delhi, despite Yogi Adityanath!”

When South First asked whether the historian had had any meetings with Khan before the Kannur event, he replied: “I did not know Khan personally while he was a student at AMU. If I remember right, I met him in Delhi only when he was a minister in the VP Singh government. I was a member of a teachers’ delegation on some matter relating to the university, in which he — as a minister — was not in any case directly concerned. I cannot recall any other conversation with him.”