Shehzad Poonawalla

Shehzad Poonawalla is an Indian politician, political commentators and activist from Mumbai, Maharashtra. He was a member of the Indian National Congress and worked as a secretary of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee. He opposed the election of Rahul Gandhi as the party's president in 2017 and called the process "rigged". Currently, he is serving as the National Spokesperson for Bhartiya Janata Party.

Personal life

Poonawalla is from Pune, Maharashtra. He is a member of the affluent Aga Khan family. He is a Muslim but states his "culture" Hindu, and feels reverence for Ganesha. He is a brother of Tehseen Poonawalla, who is a Congress Party supporter and speaks for the party in many news channels debates. He joined an academic programme specializing in politics and government at the MIT School of Government, Pune, and subsequently studied law. He interned with Congress politician Suresh Kalmadi.

Political career

Poonawalla is known for his strong right-wing outlook. He entered in politics at the age of 16. He joined the All India Congress Committee (AICC) as a volunteer in 2008 after his internship with Suresh Kalmadi. He was the vice-president of the National Students Union of India's Pune wing and worked in the media cell of the AICC. Before the 2017 Pune Municipal Corporation election, he was given a responsibility by the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee to provide his "inputs" for Pune. He was also tasked with a responsibility because of his "strong credentials as a young Muslim face across India" to formulate a strategy of Congress against the "growing clouts" of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen in Maharashtra.

He joined the media research team of the Congress Party in Delhi after finishing his course at MIT School of Government, Pune. His brother, Tehseen Poonawalla, also moved to Delhi with him to pursue his business there. Shehzad worked with senior Congress leaders including Digvijaya Singh, Rajeev Shukla and Manish Tewari in their offices. In the preparation for the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, Congress in-charge for the election, Digvijaya Singh, selected the Poonawalla brothers to operate the party's campaign office at Lucknow. Both the brother helped Tejashwi Yadav to run a social media campaign for him after the resignation of Nitish Kumar from the position of the Chief Minister of Bihar due to the corruption charges against Yadav who was the Deputy Chief Minister in Kumar's cabinet.

PM Modi in Gujarat

Those who have no internal democracy can't work for people... I want to tell this youngster Shehzad – you have done a brave thing but this is sadly what has always happened in Congress.

PM Narendra Modi, 2017

A day before when Rahul Gandhi, who was the vice-president of the Congress Party then, filed his nomination for the election of the President of the Indian National Congress on 4 December 2017, Poonawalla tweeted that he approached the office of Rahul Gandhi to provide him proofs that election process of the party was not fair and expected that Gandhi would stop the election but, he claimed, the office "insulted" him. He made an allegation on 29 November 2017 that the internal poll of the party was "rigged" in favour of Rahul Gandhi and his elevation was "selection [and] not an election". The party announced unopposed election of Rahul Gandhi as the president on 11 December 2017 stating he "was the only one to file nomination". Poonawalla had shared his interest in contesting the election but expressed his frustration that Rahul Gandhi enjoyed "unfair advantage" in the party for being the member of Nehru–Gandhi family. His action of going public with such an allegation was criticized by the President of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee Ashok Chavan who dismissed it as an attempt of getting "cheap publicity". Poonawalla family including Shehzad's mother and his brother Tehseen, who is the brother-in-law of Robert Vadra (brother-in-law of Rahul Gandhi), cut off ties with Shehzad after this incident as the family supported the elevation of Rahul Gandhi for party's presidency and expected Shehzad to raise the matter at the inter-party forum instead of approaching media. However, he was lauded by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was campaigning for his party during the 2017 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election, and called him "brave".

A few hours before the Supreme Court verdict on Ayodhya dispute, Poonawalla asked on Twitter to retweet his post related to the dispute if they supported Rama and ignore it if they were "sons of Babur". He was immediately warned by the Kaushambi Police of an action against him if he would not delete the tweet which he later did out of “respect for the police”.

After quitting the Indian National Congress, Poonawalla joined the Bhartiya Janata Party and was appointed as IT and Social Media department in-charge of the party's Delhi unit by Adesh Gupta. He is currently serving as the National Spokesperson.

Activism

Poonawalla is a political and social activist. He was a strong proponent for an anti-lynching bill, Manav Suraksha Kanoon (lit. 'Human Protection Law'), and came against cow vigilante violence in India. He is active on Twitter and uses the platform for sharing his political criticism including against the leaders of Congress. He has been vocal about the issues related to students' welfare and freedom in the universities including related to Banaras Hindu University, Film and Television Institute of India and Jawaharlal Nehru University in media.