Ansari and insecurity
Editorial
Former Vice President of India Hamid Ansari’s new book ‘By Many A Happy Accident : Recollections of Life’ is currently the talk of the town. He served in the Government in the capacity of India’s Ambassador to various countries, as the Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, as the Chairman of the National Minorities Commission and twice as Vice President of this sovereign Nation for 10 years.
He has narrated some incidents that took place in his social life. Ansari has made an effort to keep track of the current political and social situations in the country. Some excerpts from the book and interviews with many eminent editors and journalists that are currently being circulated, have caused a big uproar in the media as well as in social and political circles. The reasons for this are quite natural.
Indian Muslims ‘in danger’ ?
Ansari, who retired as Vice President in 2017, writes, ‘Muslims in the country are living an insecure life’. When a responsible person makes such a sensitive statement, it is very important for him to give it a rational and logical basis. However, Ansari did not elaborate on this. When a journalist asked him pointed questions in an interview – ‘Don’t you think that even Hindus are living an insecure life ? Mob lynching takes place not only in the case of Muslims but also Hindus. Do these take place looking at religion ?’ Instead of replying, Ansari got up and left the interview. No one was surprised over this action of Ansari who had protested against the removal of an oil painting of Mohammad Ali Jinnah that had been hanging in Aligarh Muslim University for many years and getting upset over Akhlakh’s lynching in Dadri, but being silent over the murder of cow-protector Prashant Pujari.
Respect given to Indian Muslims !
Ansari says that it is not much important that we are Muslims, it is our professionalism that is important. Am I a citizen of this country or not ? If I am a citizen, I should get all the rights that citizenship gives me.
Ansari’s statement is true, and this is why he had the honour of being the ‘second citizen of this country’ for 10 years. This is why, a Muslim leader was the Chief Minister of the most developed State in the country, a talented Muslim scientist was hailed as the ‘Missile-man of India’ (not only this, he was honoured to be the President of this country and honoured with the highest civilian award).
How can you forget that those who mislead the Muslim citizens by opposing the CAA, also have the freedom for this only because they are an integral part of this country, meaning, citizens. On the other hand, will anyone dream that a Hindu will become the Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir ?
Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb !
Ansari has objected to the method adopted to repeal Article 370, which granted special privileges to Kashmir, and said in an interview that he was not keen to comment on whether the repeal was right or wrong. Remaining silent on the historic effort to maintain the country’s integrity is dangerous. However, pointing a finger at the method to achieve it is even more frightening.
The only solution was to repeal this Article in a situation where more than 75 lakh citizens of the country have been left backward, thousands of soldiers and innocent civilians have been sacrificed. The Vice President is not saying a word against the indiscriminate atrocities against 7 lakh Kashmiri Hindus in the Kashmir Valley 3 decades ago and the genocide of Hindus. Even today, all these Hindus are living a miserable life in various parts of the country.
The majority of society is living an insecure life, why does the former Vice President not talk of it ? Is it not discrimination to divide people on the basis of religion and treat them so ? This is why, the country today needs to be vigilant against the mindset of those who only force Hindus to adopt the Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb (a syncretic fusion of Hindu cultural elements with Muslim religious elements).
Does this gentleman have a natural right to spew venom on the majority of the Nation which has accepted and honoured minorities even after they had attacked the Indian culture for 1,000 years ? Today, making such statements and keeping a patriotic ‘silence’ in the days of Greta and Rihanna (when all patriots must come together and be prepared to put an end to the international conspiracy to discredit the world’s largest Democracy), is like pouring fuel over fire of that conspiracy.
Hence, the time has come to say that the bravery and policies adopted by the Union Government and under the leadership of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to repeal Article 370 were 100% in the national interests.
Ansari’s statements are a form of ideological terrorism, which is worse than jihadi terrorism. With this in mind, his statements need to be ideologically challenged on all platforms.
To acheive this objective, devout Hindus, patriots, and more so the Government, should try hard.