UP Elections 2017: Rampur's 'emperor' whitewashes Nawab era

Addressing a rally just outside the Rampur fort, Samajwadi Party (SP) strongman Mohammad Azam Khan bursts into tears while recalling the "tyranny" of the Nawabs, the former rulers of the erstwhile princely state of Rampur, against the people.

The crumbling fort providing a fitting, indeed symbolic, backdrop for his diatribe, the legislator from Rampur interestingly mentions neither the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in his campaign speech, reserving his ire for the once powerful Nawabs.

"This city was ruled by nawabs who had crossed all limits of torturing the public. Now, they are nowhere," the man, often dubbed as the 'emperor' of Rampur, says as he promises to remove all "residual" traces of Nawabs from the Rohilkhand region once he returns to power after the elections.

Seemingly determined to erase the past, as Uttar Pradesh's minister for public works, Khan, or Aali Jinab as he is known, has transformed Rampur into a snazzy city of malls, paved roads, artificial lakes, jogging and cycle tracks. The Budget of Rampur's local bodies was raised to Rs 900 crore under the Naya Savera Nagar Vikas Yojana (New Dawn City Development Scheme). A new state-of-art of Bapu Mall a shopping arcade is almost ready. There are two compactor machines to dispose waste, two road sweepers and a sewer jetty machine.

But this development has not come without heavy cost. Several heritage monuments, including the city gates, are now history – literally. Many relics of the past that stood there for centuries are now demolished. The tombs of the Nawabs and their vast graveyards have been broken down to pave the way for Azam's private resort.

Human bones strewn in the field with dogs scrambling for their custody are the mute testament to the vengeance that is the hallmark of the rivalry between Khan and the Nawabs of Rampur.

Significantly, the rivalry does not spill into the electoral field in Rampur. As Rampur gears for another round of elections, the main candidates in the fray are Khan, BSP's Tanveer Ahmed Khan and BJP's Shiv Bahadur Saxena.

Next gen

The scion of the Nawab family Kazim Ali Khan, who trained in architecture at Columbia University, has left the city and is contesting from nearby Suar-Tanda on a BSP ticket against Azam Khan's 26-year-old son Abdullah Azam, a management graduate who is making debut in politics.

His matric certificate, it is learnt, had shown his age as 24 years and 7 months, below the mandatory age of 25 required to contest elections. But a magic wand worked and a hospital in Lucknow claiming that Abdullah Azam was born there certified him as 26.

The last time that a member of the Nawab family represented Rampur in the Lok Sabha was in 1999 when Mickey Mian's widow Noor Bano defeated her nearest rival by over 100,000 votes. She lost to film actor Jaya Prada in the 2009 election. It was her second consecutive defeat to the actor. "That's all right," says Noor Bano at her residence in Delhi.

She says she is pained by the demolition of heritage structures in Rampur.

Khan, on his part, said he dares the Nawabs to go court against him. The minister said the Nawabi era had gone and such people should be ready to face music for their activities.

Has this almost obsessive rivalry made a dent with voters. As the powerful Khan makes another bid for power, it's anybody's guess.

"People are completely silent here. You may see a lot of flags of the SP. That is because people are scared of mantriji. There is no saying who will win in this election. Development is being thwarted here," is how Usman, a mechanic, put it.