Accusing former VP Hamid Ansari of compromising India’s security assets when he was posted in Iran in 1990-92, former R&AW officers had approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2017 demanding a probe against the former VP.
Former Vice President Hamid Ansari is again in the news for sharing the stage with anti-India forces. This is not the first time Ansari has dissed India from a platform arranged by anti-India forces. In a virtual event organised by Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) on Wednesday (January 26), Ansari dissed India, saying intolerance has been rising in the country lately.
“In recent years, we have experienced the emergence of trends and practices that dispute the well-established principle of civic nationalism and interpose a new and imaginary practice of cultural nationalism…. It wants to distinguish citizens on the basis of their faith, give vent to intolerance, insinuate otherness, and promote disquiet and insecurity,” Ansari said.
It is important to note that Ansari said this on the day when the country was celebrating Republic Day.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) rejected Ansari’s allegations, saying India is a very robust and vibrant democracy.
“We have seen reports on this event. India is a robust and vibrant democracy. It does not require certification from others…The track record of event organisers is as well-known as the biases and political interests of the participants”, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Friday (January 28).
Any assumption that India’s Constitution needs protection by others is “presumptuous and preposterous”, Bagchi said.
The Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said that India is the safest place for minorities, and persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries seek refuge in India.
“What Hamid Ansari ji said is wrong…I belong to a minority community and I can proudly say that India is safest nation. Minorities facing trouble in any of our neighboring countries prefer to seek refuge in India because India is safe. Let’s be grateful to our great nation,” Law Minister Rijiju said.
After demitting the vice-president’s office in August 2017, Ansari attended the event organised by the radical organisation PFI in Kerala in September 2017. The Popular Front of India (PFI) members have been found involved in many terrorist activities. The Government of Kerala had told the Kerela High Court in 2012 that PFI is the resurrection of banned terrorist organisation SIMI.
In a raid in April 2013, the Kerela Police had arrested “21 PFI activists, all aged between 22 and 31 years, red-handed along with human shooting targets, bombs, bomb-making materials, gunpowder, eight swords, foreign currency notes, Iranian entry card in the name of Sadik Mangalodan to Kish Island free zone and leaflets of PFI and its political outfit SDPI (Social Democratic Party of India)”.
Ansari is related to the gangster-politician of Uttar Pradesh Mukhtar Ansari.
Some R&AW officers had written a letter to PM Modi in August 2017 accusing Ansari of severely hurting India’s interests when he was posted in Tehran in 1990-92.
“Ansari also brought other Indian Ambassadors in Dubai, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia to target R&AW units in their respective missions. At the time of the Bombay blasts, the R&AW’s capabilities vis-à-vis Gulf countries were in total disarray,” the letter read.
Attending the IAMC event also raised doubts as IAMC partnered with other organisations to get India’ blacklisted’. The DisInfo Lab had recently exposed how IAMC was colluding with terrorist organisations and was getting funds from anti-India forces to run propaganda against India.
“IAMC founder Shaik Ubaid collected fund in the name of Rohingyas and paid to Lobby firm FGR for getting India blacklisted by USCIRF! FGR head Terry Allen was a long-time associate of Nadine Maenza, USCIRF Chair, who is also ‘saving pluralism’ in India”, the DisInfo Lab exposed on Wednesday (January 26).
On Ansari’s last day in office, PM Modi said that Ansari had served in particular environments all his life and had been confined by some protocols since becoming vice-president in 2007 and would now be free to work according to his ‘maulik soch’.
