A towering leader of the western Uttar Pradesh Dr. Rashid Masood is no more. He breathed his last early morning on Monday at the age of 73.
Rashid Masood was admitted to a Nursing home in Rookie after suffering from Covid 19. He suffered from Covid earlier in Delhi and was treated n subsequently cured but developed the disease again three days ago n went in critical condition. After being admitted in Roorkie Nursing home on Sunday he breathed his last early morning.
I was previleged to interview him during the eighties when I was the Bureau chief of the Vishwamanav, chain of hindi Dailies, published from Saharanpur n several other places. Having been the union minister in the governments of Chowdhary Charan Singh, Rajiv Gandhi and Vishwanath Pratap Singh Dr. Rasheed Masood was born on 15 th August 1947 securing his BSC and LLM degrees from Aligarh Muslim university.
Dr Masood was a down to earth human being having represented the Lok Sabha from Saharanpur constituency for eight terms from 1980 onwards. He won from the Saharanpur Lok Sabha seat on Lok Dal ticket for the first time in 1980. His second victory was from the Kisan Kamgar Party in 1984.
He was nominated as the Rajya Sabha MP in 1986 from Lok Dal. In 1989 he won again from Saharanpur seat on Janata Dal ticket and became the union state health minister. In 1991 he was agaun elected in Janata Dal ticket n won. Dr Rashid Masood was highly revered and popular leader in Saharanpur n Western UP. However he lost in 1996 on Samajwadi Party ticket losing to Nakli Singh of BJP. Since then Dr. Masood lost in 1997 on SP ticket, in 1999 from Lok Dal ticket n 2009. However, he won in 2004 on SP ticket.
In 2010 he was nominated as Rajya Sabha MP by the Congress party n appointed as the chairman of ADEDA.
He was also the special invitee member of the highest decision making body of Congress Working Committee. Primarily the political follower of Chowdhary Charan Singh Dr. Rashid Masood was the general secretary of Lok Dal from 1975 to 1977 the critical emergency days and was the treasurer of Janata Parliamentary Party in 1979 n 80. The death of Dr. Masood has left a void in the politics of Uttar Pradesh losing a towering leader of secular n democratic ideals, especially in Western Uttar Pradesh.
