Saleem Ahmed

Some Lesser Known Facts About Saleem Ahmed

• Saleem Ahmed is an Indian politician who is known for being a Member of the Karnataka Legislative Council of Hubli–Dharwad, Haveri, Gadag District constituency since 6 January 2022.

• He started his political career as a congress party worker and would often organize rallies, training camps and youth conventions.

• In 1982, he was elected as the Student Union Leader of Sheshadripuram College, Bangalore.

• In 1984, he became the vice president of Bangalore City NSUI and in 1987, he became the President of Karnataka NSUI and General Secretary of All India Youth Congress.

  

• When he was a leader of NSUI and Youth leader, he used to take up issues related to youngsters and students. He used to travel across the country to bring out the issues and tried to invite youngsters to the nation-building process. He used to tell them about the vision of the Congress party and their role in the Freedom movement. He used to propagate the vision of Late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who came up with the voting right of youth from 21 years to 18 years. He also used to bring up the achievements of the UPA Government under the leadership of Smt. Sonia Gandhi and also the vision of Rahul Gandhi in nation-building. During his tenure as a youth leader, he used to work on social reforms such as the Anti Dowry program, tree plantations, health and blood donation camps and other social activities.

  

• In 1984, he participated as an Indian delegate to the International Youth Conference held in Moscow and Korea in 1989.

• In 1997, he was elected as a Member of the Karnataka Legislative Council and served on various committees formed by KLC.

• When he became the president of the All India Youth Congress, reportedly, he was the first Muslim leader to hold the position after Muhammad Ali in 1963. In an interview, he talked about this and said,
  

  That was over 50 years ago! Muslims and minorities have always stood by the Congress. Even the party gives them prominence always. This is the first time a Muslim has been made working president. Also, I was the first Muslim from Karnataka to be appointed the all-India NSUI president.”

• In 2001, he was an Indian delegate to the American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL) in a Political Study Mission held in the USA.

  

• In 2002, he participated as an Indian delegate to the World Kannada Conference held in Detroit in the USA.

• In 2002, he became a member of the All India Congress Committee.

• He was the Deputy Leader in a Study Tour of a Team of Legislators to The People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Singapore to study the system and functioning of the People’s Congress and their Government in the year 2005.

• In 2012, he served in the Indian delegation to South Korea for the Youth Exchange Program.

• In 2012, when he was the director general of Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, he built a national network to bring on development both at the rural level and sub-urban level. According to him, the only way India could develop was to drive rural youth clubs and involve them in nation-building activities. He developed many innovative strategies as a youth leader to develop skills among the Indian youth to become productive, responsible citizens of a modern, secular and technological India which resulted in an increase in employment. He used to organize youth programs to unite the voice of Youth clubs and Mahila Mandals. These programs were turned into community-based organizations having a huge network.  He also made plans to increase competency development, awareness, knowledge, dissemination and job orientation for the youth.

  

• Once, the BJP aimed at Saleem and said that eating halal meat was not good. In an interview, he talked about the attack by BJP and said,
  

  It is not going to have any impact. Food habits have been established over a long period of time. In the case of halal, it is only a process in Islam to purify meat. It is good for health, that is why they say it is halal. These things are no issues at all. It is in fact causing problems for people in rural areas who have poultry and livestock businesses… It will not affect the Congress party.”

• In 2020, he was one of the three working presidents of the Congress party in Karnataka. In an interview, he talked about this and said that when he was in charge in Telangana, there were four working presidents and five in Maharashtra. He said that it was a good thing to strengthen the organisation and empower the president.

• In 2020, he asked the state government to give him the record of expenditure towards the purchase of PPE kits, sanitisers and masks during the Covid-19 crisis. According to him, the Karnataka government had not released the Rs. 2500 package to solve the crisis.

• In 2022, he asked the Congress party for more tickets to candidates belonging to the community, in the Assembly polls in 2023. In an interview, he talked about this and said,
  

  We will scrutinise and give a list to the party. Winnability will be the criteria. Wherever there is a chance to win, we will push for tickets to be given to minorities. Voters are being shifted to different houses and booths, such irregularities have been found in Bidar, Vijayapura and Hubballi, other than Bengaluru.”