‘Don of the dons’: What Patrick French wrote about Mukhtar Ansari

Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari died of a cardiac arrest on Thursday evening.

Late British writer and historian Patrick French in his book 'India: A Portrait' had described meeting gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, who died of a cardiac arrest on Thursday evening, in vivid details ahead of the 2009 general elections.

A file photo of Mukhtar Ansari.(File)

The late historian introduced him as “one of the most popular godfathers in Uttar Pradesh.”

“His (Mukhtar Ansari) grandfather Dr. M A Ansari was an associate of Motilal Nehru who had served as president of the Indian National Congress in the 1920s. When Mukhtar Ansari was growing up in the 1970s, the region had been a communist stronghold and he was conscious of the depth of local animosity between different social groups,” French Wrote. “His brothers were politicians, and in the 1990s Mukhtar gained a reputation as a man who got things done. ”

French wrote about his first meeting with Ansari at the Kanpur Railways when the latter was returning from his bail hearing. At the time, Ansari suggested French visit him at the district jail in Kanpur.

“Marching along the main platform of Kanpur railway station came two columns of armed police, and in their midst a very tall man in a spotless white kurta pyjama. As the procession advanced, people had turned and bowed and been acknowledged with a grand wave. It was the don of dons, Mukhtar Ansari, returning late in the evening from his bail hearing,” he wrote.

Further writing about his visit to the Kanpur district jail, French said that he was apprised of Ansari's obsession with National Geographic and Animal Planet on Discovery.

People gather at the residence of the jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur on March 28.(PTI)

During the meeting, Ansari told the British historian that he entered into politics as he was concerned about justice and the persecution of the oppressed.

“The Dalits and bonded labourers in eastern UP are treated like scum. I took up arms against this way of living in Joga village back in 1985, although I come from a distinguished family background. I have won six consecutive elections as an independent MLA [state legislator],” Ansari told the British author.

French writes that Mukhtar Ansari portrayed his life as a “justified and even inevitable response to the social imbalance and caste feuding” in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

“That part of our state is poverty-stricken. Generation after generation has to live on subsistence farming. The minorities are subject to the injustice of the Congress party. As an elected representative, I give all the money I make directly to the community in Mau. I arrange marriages, organize education, health clinics and eye clinics, I give out blankets and saris—and not only at election time. If someone calls me a ‘mafia don’ it makes no difference," he told the author.

"Can they name one person I have attacked who comes from a weaker section? I have always fought against the powerful, I have taken power from them. I will continue what I am doing until the end of my days,” he quoted Ansari as saying.

During the meeting, Mukhtar Ansari also expressed his wish to hunt lions in South Africa and visit the United States.

“When I get out,” said Mukhtar, “I want to travel. I’ve been on the Haj and to Thailand, and I want to go to Mecca again, and to hunt lions in South Africa—where I’ve heard it’s legal. I’ll buy hunting accessories and see the black-maned lion in Namibia. My ambition is to visit the U.S.A., and see what progress America has made, and what we in UP can take from there to practise in our own part of the world.”

Ansari's tryst with crime began as early as 1978, when he was just 15 years old. He had his first brush with the law when he was booked for criminal intimidation at Saidpur Police Station of Ghazipur.

Almost a decade later in 1986, by the time Mukhtar Ansari had become a well-known face in the contract mafia circle, another case of murder was lodged against him at Muhammad Police Station of Ghazipur.