By Tanvir Salim
Ramadan is here, and there will be a mad rush to organize Iftaar parties in New Delhi. Most likely Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also organize one along with Sonia Gandhi and the rest.
The practice of political Iftaar parties started in early 1970s by Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, who was a junior minister at that time in New Delhi. And where did he conceive the idea? No other than my grandfather Istafa Husain was the one who inspired him.
Both these gentlemen were neighbors in Lucknow in the mid-1950s at a locality which was then known as ‘Bandariyabagh’ (on Kalidas Marg). They both were Parliamentary Secretaries in the regime of Chief Minister Sampoornanand.
Bahuguna invited my grandfather for Iftaar one day, which at that time was unheard of. A Hindu inviting a Muslim for Iftaar. Next year, he invited many more Muslim friends. It was kept very informal.
I am not sure what happened in the intervening years, but in early seventies, Bahuguna called my grandfather, who was a MLC that time, and told him that now he is doing a formal Iftaar Party.
That was the first formal Iftaar party by a Minister in New Delhi.
(Tanvir Salim is a nuclear engineer settled in United States. Recently, he has been spending more time in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh).