Attempts are being made to treat Muslims as ‘others’ : Former Vice President Hamid Ansari

New Delhi – Former Vice President Hamid Ansari on 10^th February said a concerted effort was on from certain quarters to regard the Muslims as ‘others’. He was speaking during a discussion on his recently released autobiography ‘By Many a Happy Accident : Recollections of a Life’, organised by the Centre for Policy Research.

Concerted Effort By Some To Regard Muslims As "Others": Hamid Ansari https://t.co/Lxf3DEWgSA pic.twitter.com/ibLFX4NSGO

— NDTV News feed (@ndtvfeed) February 10, 2021

The former Vice President said, “Yes I am pained because there is a concerted effort by some to regard Muslims as others. Am I a citizen or not ? If I am a citizen I have the right to be a beneficiary of all things that flow out of citizenship. For me, all my life the Preamble of the Constitution and its four principles – justice, liberty, equality and fraternity – sum up the discussion of what we would want to be like”.

Noting that a plural society is an existential reality in India, Hamid Ansari recalled the 2015 episode where he was questioned for not saluting the Tricolour during the Republic Day celebrations.

Another time he was questioned by BJP’s Ram Madhav for skipping the Yoga Day event. Hamid Ansari said those exercises in targeting him were ‘rigged exercises’.

Hamid Ansari also defended separate personal laws in times when the ruling BJP is steadily moving towards a Uniform Civil Code. When asked by Pawan Verma why a secular Congress Government overturned a progressive SC judgment in the Shah Bano case, Hamid Ansari said, “Politicians make judgements. You can examine in hindsight if those were the correct judgements”.

To another question by Pawan Verma about why after Independence no attempt was made to change personal laws of other religions barring the Hindus, Hamid Ansari argued that Muslim laws of criminal jurisprudence had been dropped during the British times.

Hamid Ansari asked, “Can marriage, divorce, inheritance laws be uniformed in Indian society ? The argument that Muslim law was not touched is not factual. Everyone was touched to the point it suited political convenience”.