Former Karnataka Minority Welfare Haj & Wakf minister and ex-BJP leader Prof Mumtaz Ali Khan passed away at his residence in Bengaluru in the early hours on Monday due to illnesses associated with old age. He was 94 years of age.
Khan, a sociology professor, who had taught at the University of Agricultural Sciences here, had contested the assembly election on a BJP ticket, from Bengaluru’s Jayamahal constituency in 2004. Though he lost the election, he was made the Minister for Minority Affairs, Haj, and Wakf by chief minister B S Yeddyurappa.
After Yeddyurappa quit BJP to form his short-lived Karnataka Janata Party (KJP), Khan joined the new front, only to quit it and join back the saffron party.
In 2013, when BJP announced the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate, Mumtaz Ali Khan joined the Congress party saying he was saddened by his party’s decision.
A self-avowed RSS admirer, Khan was the author of the book ‘Naa Kanda RSS’ (RSS which I have seen) in which he praised the leaders of the extremist outfit as nation builders and blamed the Congress party for allegedly misguiding Muslims towards it.
Under his tenure as the minority affairs minister, the government launched several schemes to provide financial assistance to minority students pursuing UPSC exams and provided overseas scholarships.
Khan and his family were running a free-school for the last three decades from his pension money and personal sources in memory of his late son.
Prof. Mumtaz Ali Khan is survived by his wife, one son, one daughter.
