Abdul Rahman Antulay (9 February 1929 – 2 December 2014) was an Indian politician. Antulay was a union minister forMinority Affairs and aMember of Parliament in the14th Lok Sabha of India. Earlier he had been the Chief Minister of the state ofMaharashtra, but was forced to resign after being convicted by theBombay High Court on charges that he had extorted money for a trust fund he managed. Later, the Supreme Court of India gave him a clean chit in that case.
Antulay belonged to theIndian National Congress. In the2009 Indian general elections, he lost toAnant Geete from theRaigad Lok Sabha constituency of Maharashtra. He is the first Muslimchief minister of Maharashtra.[1]
He was born in aKonkani Muslim Family near. to father Hafiz Abdul Gafoor and mother Zohrabi in Ambet village, nearMahadRaigad, Maharashtra,India. He was married to Nargis Antulay and the couple had one son and three daughters. After appearing for his B.A. examinations, he studied to be a barrister, educated atBombay University andLincoln's Inn,London.
Antulay was a member of theMaharashtra Legislative Assembly from 1962[2] to 1976, during which time he served in the Maharashtra state government as Minister of State for Law and Judiciary, Ports and Fisheries and then as Minister of Law & Judiciary, Building, Communication and Housing from October 1969 to February 1976. He was a member of theRajya Sabha from 1976 to 1980; in 1980, he was again elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and served as Chief Minister of Maharashtra from June 1980 to January 1982. He was forced to resign his post after allegations of corruption and a conviction in an extortion case.[3][4] He again got elected in 1985 election to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly[5] and remained until 1989, when he was elected to the9th Lok Sabha. He was re-elected to the10th Lok Sabha in 1991. From June 1995 to May 1996, he was Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, and from February to May 1996 he was additionally in charge of Water Resources. In 1996 he was re-elected to the11th Lok Sabha, and in 2004 he was elected to the 14th Lok Sabha. He was Union Minister forMinistry of Minority Affairs (India) underManmohan Singh's government.[6]
He started his career as active social worker in 1945. As a social worker his notable achievements include construction of (i) a jetty on the bank ofSavitri River, Bankot (Khadi) Creek through local people offering free labor (shramdan in Marathi) to complete the task. He also worked with his own hands along with the villagers of Ambet; (ii) road between the village Ambet and Lonere Goregaon (then in Kolaba, now inRaigad district) to connect his village to NH-17. He had a keen interest in the uplifting of the weaker sections of the society and as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra had launched Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana (a monthly financial aid scheme for poor and destitute), pension and housing facilities for legislators and media persons, and many more initiatives.[7] He had also announced that he would get back the Bhawani sword — the sword used by iconic Maratha king Shivaji which now lies in the British Museum in London.[8]
He had to resign from the post ofChief Minister of Maharashtra due to allegations of his involvement in corruption. However, the Supreme Court cleared him of all allegations years later. The charges were seen as political ploy to malign him and arrest his political growth. When cleared by the Supreme Court, he said "I had done nothing wrong. I was targeted by political rivals but they failed. I suffered some setbacks, but they could not destroy me."[7]
Antulay died fromchronic Kidney failure on 2 December 2014 while being treated at theBreach Candy Hospital in Mumbai.[9]
Upon Antulay's demise, noted criminal lawyer J.P. Mishra, who represented theBharatiya Janata Party leader Ramdas Nayak in the corruption cases he had filed against Antulay, paid tributes to his former adversary. He acknowledged Antulay as "an administrator par excellence" and praised him as "a truly great human being. He set up the trusts for the benefit of the poorest people in society, but they became his undoing. Even during the trial, he was always amiable and soft-spoken, never harbouring animosity or ill-will against anybody".[7]
He published several books:
He resigned as Chief Minister of Maharashtra after theBombay High Court convicted him of extortion on 13 January 1982. The court ruled that Antulay had illegally required Bombay area builders to make donations to Indira Gandhi Pratibha Pratishthan trust, one of several trust funds he had established and controlled, in exchange for receiving more cement than the quota allotted to them by the Government.[3][10] He was later granted bail by the court.[11] However, the Supreme Court later cleared him of the allegations.[12]
Again after2008 Mumbai attacks he has raised a controversy by saying that the end ofHemant Karkare, of the Anti-Terrorism Squad of Maharashtra, killed in the attacks, may be related to his investigation of the2006 Malegaon blasts, leading to questions about the Mumbai attacks. Later he changed his stand and told Parliament he had not talked about who killed the police officers but about who "sent them in the wrong direction".[13] His party, Congress, distanced itself from his statements. The then US ambassador, in some of the US embassy cables, accused that this early dismissal, then followed by tacit promotion, indicates that "the Congress Party will readily stoop to the old caste/religious-based politics if it feels it is in its interest."[14]
| Preceded by | Chief Minister of Maharashtra 9 June 1980 – 12 January 1982 | Succeeded by |
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