Row over Hamid Ansari attending online ‘anti-India’ meet in US

New Delhi: Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has been dragged into controversy after he attended at a virtual panel discussion organised by the Indian American Muslim Council on Wednesday.

Ansari, along with actor-activist Swara Baskar attended the meet, which also featured four US lawmakers.

The speakers expressed concern over the current human rights situation in India. The organization has been accused for lobbying against India on various platforms in the US.

“As the Indian government continues to target the practices of minority faiths, it creates an atmosphere where discrimination and violence can take root. In recent years, we have seen an uptick in online hate speeches and acts of hate, including vandalised mosques, torched churches, and communal violence,” said Democratic Senator Ed Markey, who has a history of taking anti-India stands, including opposing the landmark India-US civil nuclear deal during the Manmohan Singh regime.

Ansari, too, expressed his concern over the rising trend of Hindu nationalism.

“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,” he alleged.

The three other Congressmen who spoke during the panel discussion — Jim McGovern, Andy Levin and Jamie Raskin — have traditionally taken anti-India stands irrespective of the governments in power in New Delhi.

Meanwhile, there have been strong reactions from India. Politicians are defending the current situation in India saying that criticism of the country is unfair.

Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Thursday criticised former Vice President Hamid Ansari for his comment at an event organised by the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC).

Naqvi said that the country always follows the principle of tolerance and secularism. “We always believe in cultural nationalism and it is our constitutional commitment,” he said.

Addressing the event, former vice president Ansari reportedly said that in recent years India is experiencing the emergence of trends and practises that dispute the well-established principle of civic nationalism and imposing a new practice of cultural nationalism.

“Yesterday when the entire country was celebrating and hoisting a flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar at that time a man, who had occupied constitutional post, defamed the country from an anti India platform provided by an organisation having link with the ISI,” Naqvi said. – INDIA NEWS STREAM