Salman Khurshid

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Salman Khurshid
Khurshid in 2011
28th Minister of External Affairs
In office 28 October 2012 – 25 May 2014
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	S. M. Krishna
Succeeded by	Sushma Swaraj
Minister of Law and Justice
In office 12 Juli 2011 – 28 October 2012
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	Veerappa Moily
Succeeded by	Ashwani Kumar
Minister of Minority Affairs
In office 28 May 2009 – 28 October 2012
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	A. R. Antulay
Succeeded by	K. Rahman Khan
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office 2009–2014
Preceded by	Chandra Bhushan Singh
Succeeded by	Mukesh Rajput
Constituency	Farrukhabad
In office 1991–1996
Preceded by	Santosh Bhartiya
Succeeded by	Sakshi Maharaj
Constituency	Farrukhabad
President of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee
In office 7 November 2004 – 12 September 2007
Preceded by	Jagdambika Pal
Succeeded by	Rita Bahuguna Joshi
In office 1999 – 4 December 2000
Succeeded by	Sriprakash Jaiswal
General Secretary of AICC
In office 2004–2005
President	Sonia Gandhi
Personal details
Born	(1953-01-01) 1 January 1953 (age 71) Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse	Louise Khurshid
Parent	Khurshed Alam Khan (father)
Relatives	Zakir Husain (grandfather) Shah Jahan Begum (grandmother)
Alma mater	University of Delhi (B.A.) University of Oxford (M.A., BCL)
Profession	Senior Advocate

Salman Khurshid Alam Khan (born 1 January 1953) is an Indian politician, designated senior advocate, eminent author and a law teacher. He was the Cabinet Minister of the Ministry of External Affairs. He belongs to the Indian National Congress. He is a lawyer, and a writer^[1] who has been elected from Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency in the General Election of 2009. He belongs to the Farrukhabad area. Prior to this he was elected to the 10th Lok Sabha (1991–1996) from the Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency. He became the Union Deputy Minister of Commerce in June 1991, and later became the Union Minister of State for External Affairs (Jan. 1993 – June 1996).^[2] He started his political career in 1981 as an Officer on Special Duty in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) under the prime ministership of Indira Gandhi.

He is the son of Khurshed Alam Khan, a former Union Minister of External affairs, Government of India, and maternal grandson of Zakir Husain, the third President of India.^[2] He is of Pathan ancestry on both his paternal and maternal sides of his family, he traces his lineage to the Afridi and Kheshgi Tribes of Afghanistan.^[3][4]

He studied in St. Xavier's High School, Patna,^[5] Delhi Public School, Mathura Road.^[6] He obtained B.A. (English and Jurisprudence) from St. Stephen's College, Delhi and later did M.A., Bachelor of Civil Law at St Edmund Hall of Oxford University.^[2] He also taught as lecturer in law at Trinity College, Oxford.

Salman started his political career as an Officer on Special Duty in the Prime Minister's Office, during the Prime Ministership of Indira Gandhi in the early 1980s. Later he became the Deputy Minister of Commerce in the Government of India. In 1991, he won the election to parliament from the Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh and was appointed Minister of State for External Affairs by Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. He lost the election of 1996 and it was not until 2009 that he returned to Parliament.

In the General Election of 2009, he was elected as Member of Parliament from Farrukhabad, winning as a candidate of the Indian National Congress, with 169,351 votes. He became the Union Minister of State (with Independent Charges) of Corporate Affairs and Minority Affairs in the Government of India. He took over as Minister on Friday, 29 May 2009. In the Cabinet reshuffle of 12 July 2011, he was made Cabinet Minister for Law and Justice, and for Minority Affairs, in the Government of India.

He came 4th and lost his deposit in the Lok Sabha elections 2014 contesting from the same constituency of Farrukhabad. In the next parliamentary election (2019), he stood 3rd in with 55,258 votes.^{[citation needed]}

He has been the President of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee twice. He was also the President of the Delhi Public School Society and Dr. Zakir Hussain Study Circle and PATRON of Mother Teresa Memorial Trust/Mother Teresa Foundation.

In 2009, incumbent president Sirajuddin Qureshi beat Salman Khurshid for the presidency of India Islamic Cultural Centre (IICC).^[7] In 2024, he was elected president of IICC.^[8]

Salman Khurshid appeared for Students Islamic Movement of India, a group banned in India and frequently charged by Indian authorities with terrorist activities, as its defence lawyer, appealing the 2002 ban; in June 2006 the Supreme Court of India rejected the appeal noting "the appeal against the ban should be first argued before the tribunal established for the purposes". Asked about his appearance, Khurshid said:

I would refuse a client only when I am personally satisfied that taking up the case would go against the ethics of the profession. A lawyer has to appear for an accused. It is my constitutional duty. A party and the government too cannot pre-judge an organisation.^[9]

In 2009, Salman Khurshid criticized the partition of India, opining that a united India would have been better than a divided one.^[10]

Khurshid has been deeply involved in writing and acting in plays since his student days in Delhi and Oxford. He is the author of the play Sons of Babur, published by Rupa & Co., which has been staged, with Tom Alter in the lead role, at the Red Fort in Delhi.

Salman Khurshid has also been the editor of "The Contemporary Conservative: Selected Writings of Dhiren Bhagat" ^[11] published in 1990.

In October 2021, Khurshid published Sunrise over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times, writing about India's decline in secularism surrounding the Ayodhya dispute.^[12] BJP leaders shared an excerpt from the book and triggered a controversy regarding Khurshid's attempt to draw a parallel between Hindutva and radical Islamist groups.^[13] The controversy resulted in his Nainital home being vandalized and set on fire.^{[14][15][16][17]}

A suit filed by Hindu Sena President Vishu Gupta, wanting to stop the publication, circulation, and sale of the book Sunrise over Ayodhya was dismissed by a Delhi court on 18 November 2021. The court said that the author and publisher had the right to write and publish the book.^[18][19]

Khurshid and his wife Louise run the Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust for physically challenged people.^[20] The trust was founded on 30 October 1986 and commemorates the third President of India, Zakir Husain, who is the maternal grandfather of Salman Khurshid.^[21] The Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust is registered at Khurshid's residence as an NGO and Louise is its chief functionary officer.^[22][23] It has been operating in many states and receiving substantial grants from several important ministries of the government of India.^[20] As of 2012^[update], it is chaired by Sayeeda Alam, Khurshid's father. In October 2012, India Today and Aaj Tak alleged that the Khurshids had embezzled funds, a charge denied by them. The ruling party Congress strongly defended Khurshid, but former social activist Arvind Kejriwal of Aam Aadmi Party began what he called "indefinite agitation". Angered by the allegations, Khurshid called Arvind Kejriwal a 'guttersnipe'.^[24] About 7.1 million was allegedly used by Salman Khurshid which was funded by the government to buy tricycles for the disabled.^{[25][26][21][27][28][29][30]}

"Operation Dhritrashtra"^[31] was an investigation conducted by TV news channel Aaj Tak which alleged financial misappropriation by the trust. The investigation conducted by Deepak Sharma,^[32] Editor, SIT, India Today Group, revealed that it forged signatures and stamps of senior officials of several districts in Uttar Pradesh.^[33][34] Aaj Tak gathered documentary evidence of the alleged forgery and false reporting from at least ten districts in the state. The Uttar Pradesh Economic offence wing^[35] investigated the matter.^{[36][37][38][39]} Louise filed a defamation case against the TV Today news broadcaster, which had publicised the allegations.^[40]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Salman Khurshid.

• Salman Khurshid, webpage at Lok Sabha website