March is turning into a month of political controversies over historical figures. While Maharashtra politics remains polarised over the Hindu right-wing’s demand to remove Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s tomb in Khuldabad, near Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (formerly Aurangabad), up north Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Rajya Sabha MP Ramji Lal Suman was at the receiving end of a backlash after he called Rajput ruler Rana Sanga a “traitor”. Suman on March 21 said on the floor of the House, “Indian Muslims do not consider Babur their idol. They follow Prophet Muhammad and the Sufi tradition. But I want to ask, who brought Babur here? It was Rana Sanga who invited Babur to defeat Ibrahim Lodi. So, if Muslims are called the descendants of Babur, then Hindus must be the descendants of traitor Rana Sanga. We criticise Babur, but why don't we criticise Rana Sanga?” Sanga who was from the Sisodia clan of Suryavanshi Rajputs ruled Mewar from 1508 to 1528. He led a Rajput alliance against Babur, losing the Battle of Khanwa to him. It was a decisive moment that solidified the hold of the Mughal empire. Following Suman’s remarks, rightwing outfits such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Karni Sena targeted the SP MP while Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat of the BJP said only a person with “trivial intellect” and a “small heart” could have made such comments. Suman’s party chief Akhilesh Yadav defended him on Sunday, saying, “Everyone is flipping through the pages of history. Ask BJP leaders which pages they are turning. What are they debating? They want to talk about Aurangzeb. If Ramji Lal Suman ji has referred to a page in history that contains certain facts, then what's the issue? We didn't write history 200 years ago.” Why Suman is important Suman is one of the SP’s long-serving national general secretaries who was nominated to the Rajya Sabha last year in a signal to the party’s Dalit vote base. For close to two years now, the SP has been trying to expand its base beyond its Muslim-Yadav base, banking on the PDA — Pichhda, Dalit, aur Alpsankhyak (Backward Classes, Dalits, and minorities) — strategy. Suman has been a key figure in the party’s attempt to pivot beyond its core base and has been one of Akhilesh’s most trusted leaders. Last October, Suman who is from the Jatav community moved a Private Members’ Bill on the restoration of minority status to Aligarh Muslim University. In the Bill, Suman wrote that “until the Government tinkered with the Aligarh Muslim University Act, 1920, by the Amendment Act of 1965, no one ever entertained any doubt that the Aligarh Muslim University was established by Muslims primarily for the benefit of Muslims”. Suman who is from Hathras completed his early education in his village before joining Agra College, where he joined student politics. During Emergency, he was imprisoned while pursuing a law degree. In his five-decade political career, Suman has been a four-time Lok Sabha MP from Firozabad and a former Union Minister. He won his first Lok Sabha election in 1977 from Firozabad on a Bharatiya Lok Dal ticket. He was just 26 years old at the time and defeated his closest rival Raja Ram Pipal of the Congress after receiving 73.75% of the votes. Suman next went to the Lok Sabha from Firozabad in 1989 on a Janata Dal ticket, the same year Firozabad was carved out of Agra district, winning 65.61% of the votes. He won his next two parliamentary elections from Firozabad in 1999 and 2004 on a Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket.
