By Najiya O., TwoCircles.net,
Famous Tamil poet and Islamic scholar ‘Kaviko’ Abdul Rahman has been elected the new chairman of the Tamil Nadu State Wakf Board. He is the first poet to be in the place. Known as one of the top ten Tamil poets of the era, ‘Kaviko’ has won several state and national awards. The Sahitya Academy Award was conferred upon him for the famous work ‘Aalaapanai’, thus making him the first Tamil Muslim to get the prestigious honour.
‘Kaviko’ is the title conferred upon him for his contributions to the Tamil literary field. The Tamil word means ‘the Emperor of Poems’. The literary star who has been decorating the Tamil literature for four decades has but written only poems; he has not ventured to write novels or short-stories. He owns the credit for the popularization of ‘new poem’ in Tamil; his poems are simple and easy to understand. Kaviko hails from Madurai, the literary hub of Tamil Nadu since ancient times. He was a professor and the head of the department of Tamil in the Islamiya College, Vaniambadi. His father Mahdi also was a famous scholar and poet, who has translated many famous Islamic works to Tamil.
Kaviko has taken the place of Hyder Ali, who resigned as chairman recently. Being a log-time friend of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, it is said that Kalaingar himself had taken special interest in Kaviko becoming the Chairman. “Kaviko Abdul Rahman won’t have to face much problems, I hope, because he has got popular support as well as the support of the Government”, says H. Abduraqeeb, former Amir of the Jama’athe Islami Tamil Nadu.
However, Kaviko’s election was wired in controversy. He became a member of the Wakf Board only very recently, in the beginning of the month. He became a member after the Chief Qazi of the State Salahuddin Ayyoob resigned from the Board. Mr. Salahuddin later accused in a press conference that he was asked to resign by the Waqf officials who made him believe that the whole board was being re-constituted. But, later he came to know that no others in the board had resigned. It is alleged that he was forced into resignation to make a vacancy for Kaviko.
Kaviko has been elected for a term of five years.
The Tamil Nadu Wakf Board can be contacted at http://www.tnwakfboard.org/index.htm