By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: With senior Congress leader and former Minister of State for External Affairs Salman Khursheed in the fray for presidentship, the election for the management body of New Delhi’s India Islamic Cultural Centre is being given good coverage by the local Urdu media.
Salman Khursheed is taking on the incumbent renowned businessman Sirajuddin Qureshi, who is considered among the top national leaders of the Qureshi community.
IICC members will also elect vice president, board of trustees and executive committee. Besides two candidates for the president, two including Delhi State Minority Commission chairman Kamal Faruqui are fighting for vice president, 36 candidates are for 7-member board of trustees and 31 are for 4-member executive committee. The election will be held on January 18 at IICC premises.
Intensifying his campaign Salman Khursheed has written a letter to all members of IICC.
Expressing dissatisfaction over present state of affairs at IICC he says in the letter: “Great institutions are not built on sublime wishes alone; systems are the body while ideas are their soul. There is a widespread sense that we lack in systems at the IICC. Transparency and willing accountability is sadly deficient.”
He urges members to vote him to take IICC forward: “I believe that I have a relationship with many if not most of you, both direct or indirect, that goes far beyond the campus of IICC. This step will undoubtedly consolidate that. I will be most grateful for your support to all of us in taking IICC forward. Let us do it together.”
The IICC, which has now become a hub of activities of programmes, seminars, symposiums on mostly Muslim issues, was inaugurated by Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on June 12, 2006.
The idea to set up an India Islamic Cultural Centre in the Capital came up during Hijirah Era Centenary celebrations in India in the early 1980s. AMU student leaders played great role to make the dream a reality. Hakeem Abdul Hameed Sb, Mufti Atique ur Rahman, Badaruddin Tayyabji, Begum Abida Ahmed, Sayed S. Shafi, S. Ausaf Ali and Chaudhary Mohd. Arif were the first signatories ton the memorandum for the registration of the IICC as a society in April 1981.
“As a good gesture, the Government of India allotted a prime piece of land to IICC at Lodhi Estate, New Delhi. The Indian Institute of Islamic Studies, at the behest of Hakeem Abdul Hameed Sb, donated Rs 10, 50,000/- towards the cost of land and 10,00,000 /- towards Building Fund was granted by the Department of Culture , Government of India,” says the IICC site.
Then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi laid the foundations stone of the centre August 24 1984. It took about 22 years for the centre to complete.
The aims of the Centre include: “To promote mutual understanding and tolerance amongst the diverse group of citizens of India, to remove misunderstanding about Islam and its teachings, to create awareness about of Islamic ethos and culture and to assist in the creation of a ethical society based on tolerance, universal brotherhood, love and charity.”