Rajasthan IT engineer with political dreams aspires to clean system

With Rajasthan gearing up for Assembly polls slated for December 1, an IT professional is trying hard to create a space for himself in the political arena for "cleaning the system from inside".

Rashid Hussain was linked with the 2008 Jaipur serial blasts and kept in detention for eight days, before being giving a clean chit. However, the incident affected his professional life, leading him to enter politics to treat the "paralysed system".

Forty-year-old Hussain is leading Welfare Party of India as its state president.

"What happened with me was due to our system. Not only me, there are a large number of innocent people who are framed but they cannot raise their voices. The system is paralysed and politics is a way to treat it effectively," he said.

Born in Gaya and brought up in Patna, Hussain said he was well-settled and happy with his career when he was shifted to Jaipur from Banglore on an assignment, but the blasts changed his life.

"I, along with some friends, had set up a relief camp outside SMS hospital on the day after the blast and worked for almost ten days. But later, I was picked up by SOG who kept me in detention as a suspect having links with terrorist," he told PTI here.

"Though I was given a clean chit, I suffered great loss. I lost my job and reputation. It was a tragic turn for me but I decided to fight so that one is not branded a terrorist just because of any religion," he said.

The IT engineer says this incident, his interest since college days to join politics and the Anna Hazare movement persuaded him to enter politics to "clean the system".

Hussain was associated with political and social activities during his earlier days but his parents did not wish him to see enter politics.

"They wanted me to have a career in a reputed field instead of being a politician," the WPI state president, who is employed with an engineering institution here as IT department head, says.

He became the state president of WPI a couple of months ago and formed a core team of qualified people.

He has fielded five candidates for the upcoming assembly elections and three of them are now in the fray.

After attending college daily, he goes for meetings and focuses on campaigning in remaining time.

In Jaipur, from Hawamahal constituency, senior High Court advocate Pekar Farukh is contesting from his party.

Mushtak Ali, a retired government officer, is contesting from Jhunjhunu and Saifullah is fighting from Kota south seat.

Farukh's wife, who is a faculty member in a reputed convent girls school, is actively looking after campaigning arrangements along with other women, including Hussain's wife.

"To begin with, we fielded these candidates only. We are increasing our base among educated people of all castes and communities with secular ideology. We are focusing on women also and making them aware of the value of democracy and seeking their active participation," he said.

The party's secretary of women's affair from Andhra Pradesh, Khalida Parveen, is camping in the city for motivating Muslim women to vote.

"They need to know the value of their votes. I am holding meetings and will prepare a cadre to strengthen the party's women's wing here. We are getting impressive response from women," Parveen claimed.