Muammar Gaddafi (top) and his son Seif al Islam Gaddafi

Feb. 26: A Gaddafi had visited Delhi during Ramazan in 2001 — an encounter local Muslim community leaders will not forget in a hurry.

Seif al Islam Gaddafi, heir apparent to Libya’s hated dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, dropped in at the Indian Islamic Centre during that December visit.

After breaking bread with the faithful over biryani, kebabs, korma and firni, Seif wrote a cheque of $800,000 (approximately Rs 3.6 crore at current exchange rates) in favour of the Islamic centre which was then desperate for funds to complete an unfinished structure close to Lodhi Gardens.

Many Islamic centre members were overwhelmed by the gesture and went to the extent of calling him Father Christmas, a description that did not find favour with Seif who projected himself as a pious Muslim.

Until the current uprising, Gaddafi’s second son — a graduate from the London School of Economics — had fancied himself as “Libya al-Ghad” (Libya of tomorrow).

The cheque was immediately deposited by the centre’s chairman Moosa Raza, a retired IAS officer. It bounced.

Seif could not be reached.

Months passed. Letters were sent, requests were made and the Indian mission in Tripoli was sounded. Finally, a goodwill delegation that called on Gaddafi Senior sometime in mid-2002 mustered the courage to raise the issue.

The supreme leader said he was surprised a “paltry sum” was not paid up and asked aides to trace Seif. In minutes, he was told his son was “somewhere in Africa” promising fantastic sums of money in the then war zones of Chad, Rwanda and Burundi.

But the Islamic centre office-bearers did not give up. “We did manage something,” recalls Siraj Qureshi, chairman of the centre now. “I think the final amount that was given to us was Rs 23 lakh. Actually, the final grant was $50,000, which came from the Libyan government in 2004-05,” Qureshi said.

Seif had also visited the Deoband seminary and promised to fund a 100-bed hospital and 250 scholarships. Deoband’s clergy shed their anti-Gaddafi stance — the dictator was seen as a radical — in the wake of the generous offer. But the money never came. Deobandi scholars are still bitter about it, saying empty promises are against the tenets of Islam.

Some Muslims point out that Gaddafis had been generous in the past. In 1974, the Libyan leader gave Pakistan a whopping $2 billion as “tip”. The occasion was the first meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Conference at Lahore where the dictator had relished dumpukht biryani and karori kebabs. Pakistan’s then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto reportedly built a Gaddafi mosque and stadium with that “tip”.

Anis Durrani, secretary of the Congress party’s minority department and former chairman of the Delhi Haj Committee, said he vividly recalls Seif’s visit.

“It had left a bitter taste. The Gaddafis lost a lot of respect and goodwill that they had,” he said. “Perhaps it was due to Libya facing global sanctions and economic hardship then. But nobody had asked the Gaddafi clan to be so pretentious or generous.”