MANGALURU: The political scene in Dakshina Kannada district was left poor with the demise of former higher education minister B A Moideen in Bengaluru on Tuesday. He was 81. Son of Abdul Khader and Haleema, Moideen, born in Pejawar of Bajpe village in May 1938 was suffering from age-related complications. The former minister in J H Patel cabinet was undergoing treatment for them, initially at a private hospital in the city.A staunch Devaraj Urs loyalist, Moideen earned accolades from his peers as being an honest politician , who never hankered after power. This quality in the affable Moideen was laid bare by none other than Ramesh Kumar, then minister for health and currently the speaker when he was accorded a public felicitation at Town Hall here in September 2016 for being conferred the Devaraj Urs award instituted by the government earlier that year.Member of the upper house of the state legislature for two terms from 1990 to 1992, Moideen was the minister for higher education from 1995 to 1999. Having joined the Congress in 1969, Moideen was also elected to the state assembly from Bantwal assembly constituency in 1978. When he was denied a party ticket to recontest, Moideen shifted political allegiance to Janata Dal, only to rejoin the Congress at the fag end of his political career.Crystallising his nearly four-decade old association with Moideen, former minister M C Nanaiah recalling his chat with his former cabinet colleague on Monday night wherein Moideen invited him for the release of his autobiography Nannolagina Naanu, told TOI that it is a matter of pride to have worked with him. “Moideen, me, B L Shankar, Ramesh Kumar and Jayaprakash Hegde all prided in being the original Janata Dal,” Nanaiah said.Incidentally, this quintet despite having shifted political allegiance over time when Janata Party split in to JD(U) and JD(S) in the late 1990s, remained fiercely loyal to each other. Showing their friendship, the quartet along with former CM Siddaramaiah, also a fierce socialist and closely associated with the group, paid tributes to Moideen in Bengaluru.B A Moideen was the minister for higher education in J H Patel's government. He was instrumental in implementing 1986 UGC scales in Karnataka. Moideen inaugurated the AMUCT office building when he was the minister. He was always for teachers. He argued in the media for teachers and gave a statement, ‘in fact teachers should be paid more than all others’ - during a debate on 15% salary cut.Rejected minister’s postMoideen belonged to that rare breed of politicians, who rejected an offer to become minister in the Ramakrishna Hegde cabinet even though it came knocking at his doorstep.Recalling his association with Moideen, speaker K R Rameshkumar said that he was assigned to persuade the former to accept a ministerial berth in the Hegde cabinet when Azeez Sait had resigned from the ministry. “When I telephoned Moideen to inform him about Hegde’s keenness to have him in the ministry, he flatly refused to accept it stating that he cannot accept the ministry which is rejected by Sait. This was the level of dignity and honesty he demonstrated in public life,” the speaker said.

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