The ex vice president of India if hardly known for making any reconciliation speeches in the past. He was finally elected to the post of the Vice president where he was supposed to be the VP for all Indians, irrespective of their caste, faith, political belief or ideologies. With such an honor bestowed upon him, instead of making any tangible impact on the society he reduced himself to be a mouthpiece of of community, that too with a very narrow mindset.
The headed the upper house, so called “Federation of Anarchist” which disgusted him, but not the fruits and perks that came with him. This is not the first time he has reduced himself to be a spokesman of one community with such a narrow mindset. I purposely refuse to use the word minority here because minority does not mean only Muslims. So saying he is representing concerns of minority would be a great injustice to our fellow citizens. Amit Shah who is one of the greatest nemesis of the opposition today is a Jain, also a minority but instead of feeling insecure he is making his opponents uneasy.
Somewhat around two years back speaking at 50th anniversary of Majlis-e-Mushawarat he clearly expressed his views on how Islam crosses borders of India and Muslims in India. this belief of larger Ummah will always contradict when it comes to making tough choices for your country, in such a battle Ummah will always win. In his speech he talked about what state needs to do to uplift the community and how its duty of the state to ensure the betterment of the community, what it lacked however was a thought of what the community needs to do for the nation and for themselves. It is upon the community to realize if he is a true leader who keep on reminding you only of your rights but not your duties. Full text of his speech can be read here.
Even as a VP his majority of views were either on one society or one language (Urdu). His work being published in portals/websites on one particular community only. He expressed his pain on the state of Urdu calling its condition like a homeless person, but what he did in reality for betterment of it is not much known.
Tough the criticism of the Ex-VP should not be seen as criticism of the whole community but it is important that the prominent voices from the community respectfully submitting their opinion on if Mr. Ansari is their voice when he says that the country not safe for them anymore. The absence of such voice from within the community itself makes peaceful, patriot Indian Muslims irrelevant to the likes of him.
The narrative over past few days have been based on a rhetorical statement made by ex VP, which escalated very quickly in a Hindu-Muslim issue. What was brushed under the carpet was why was the upper house adjourned and Lokpal bill could not see light of the day. It was a rare case when Honorable members were ready to sit thought the night for a debate. While many newspapers/media houses talk about his long and illustrious career as a diplomat, no one talks his failure to be not even concern about abduction of two Indian Operatives in Iran. (courtesy R.K Yadav – Mission R&AW). This was a case when the person who was duty bound to assist the people risking their life for the nation decided to do nothing. Again was it due to his love for the Ummah or towards the Nation. Only him would know better.
The last thing I would say is, this is not the last of him which we have seen. The couplet he read in his farewell speech makes it amply clear that he has no love lost for the current dispensation and he would use the rest of his time to tell about the broken love affair.
