Shahabuddin Yaqoob Quraishi (born 11 June 1947) is an Indian civil servant who served as 17th Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He was appointed as the CEC as the successor to

Navin Chawla Navin Chawla (born 30 July 1945) is a retired Indian civil servant and writer, who served as 16th Chief Election Commissioner of India. Four phases (out of five) of the Indian general election to Loksabha were executed under his supervision in ...

on 30 July 2010. He has also served as a Secretary in the

Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports is a branch of the Government of India which administers the Department of youth affairs and the Department of Sports in India. Anurag Thakur is the current Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports followed ...

Career

He is an

IAS IAS may refer to: Science * Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, New Jersey, United States * Image Analysis & Stereology, the official journal of the International Society for Stereology & Image Analysis. * Iowa Archeological Society, Uni ...

officer of the 1971 batch from

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land a ...

cadre. He has a PhD in communications and social marketing. Quraishi became the first Muslim to be the CEC of India. He demitted office on 10 June 2012. He has authored a book titled 'An Undocumented Wonder – the Making of the Great Indian Election', a book that describes the enormity and complexity of the Indian election and a book titled Old Delhi- Living Traditions a coffee table book on the heritage city and its social and cultural life. His latest book The Population Myth reveals how the right-wing spin to population data has given rise to myths about the 'Muslim rate of growth', often used to stoke majoritarian fears of a demographic skew. The book busts myths about Islam and family planning. He figured in ''The Indian Express'' list of 100 Most Powerful Indians of 2011 and again in 2012 He now pursues his interests in academics by teaching & mentoring at Cluster Innovation Centre, University of Delhi in the capacity of Honorary Professor at the centre. He is also a current member of the International Elections Advisory Council. While responding to

Karan Thapar Karan Thapar (born 5 November 1955) is an Indian journalist, news presenter and interviewer working with The Wire. Thapar was associated with CNN-IBN and hosted ''The Devil's Advocate'' and ''The Last Word''. He was also associated with India T ...

on the ''Devil's Advocate'' programme on the television channel

CNN-IBN CNN-News18 (originally CNN-IBN) is an Indian English-language news television channel founded by Raghav Bahl based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is currently co-owned by Network18 Group and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN provides internat ...

, he opposed the ideas of ''Right to Recall'' and ''Right to Reject'' advocated by Anna Hazare as not possible in

. However, after some time in a TV interview he said that the Right to Reject can be considered. Dr. S Y Quraishi was awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the National Indian Students Union UK in May 2016. He joined

Shabana Azmi Shabana Azmi (born 18 September 1950) is an Indian actress of Hindi film, television and theatre. One of India's most acclaimed actresses, Azmi is known for her portrayals of distinctive, often unconventional female characters across several ge ...

and Javed Akhtar who were the first recipients of the Fellowship.

References

External links

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LegalEra Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quraishi, S.Y. 1947 births Living people Indian Muslims Place of birth missing (living people) Chief Election Commissioners of India St. Stephen's College, Delhi alumni Indian Administrative Service officers People of the Sri Lankan Civil War Indian Peace Keeping Force