“India is most tolerant in the world” Says Naidu
NEW DELHI : In an apparent response to the outgoing Vice President Hamid Ansari’s remarks on Muslim insecurity, the Vice President elect, M. Venkaiah Naidu said that India is the most tolerant country while also adding that people try to use minority issue for political purposes. A day before his swearing-in ceremony, Naidu also said that the agenda of politics should be development.
“India is the most tolerant country. Indian ethos is of mutual respect for each other. People try to use minority issues for political purposes,” he said. Naidu Thursday rejected as “political propaganda” the view that there is a sense of insecurity among minorities in the country, apparently rebutting Vice-President Hamid Ansari’s remarks.
Though Mr. Naidu did not name anyone, his comments are seen as a response to Mr. Ansari’s remarks in a TV interview that there is unease and a sense of insecurity among Muslims in the country, and that “ambience of acceptance” is now under threat. “Some people are saying minorities are insecure. It is a political propaganda. Compared to the entire world, minorities are more safe and secure in India and they get their due told Mr Naidu.
He disagreed with the view that there is growing intolerance, saying Indian society is the most tolerant in the world because of its people and civilisation. There is tolerance and that is why democracy is so successful, he said. The former BJP president also cautioned against creating divide in the nation by singling out one community, saying it will draw adverse reaction from others. “If you single out one community, other communities will take it otherwise. That is why we say all are equal. Appeasement of none, justice for all,” the 68-year-old leader said.
Noting that India’s uniqueness is its unity in diversity, he said sarva dharm sadbhav and secularism is in the mind and blood of India. “India is secular not because of political leaders but because of its people and civilisation.” Mr. Ansari’s remarks came in the backdrop of incidents of alleged intolerance and violence by self-proclaimed cow protectors over which the Opposition has attacked the Centre.
Mr Ansari said there is a feeling of unease and a sense of insecurity among Muslims, and the “ambience of acceptance” is under threat. He also said he had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other ministers about “intolerance”.”Unfortunately, some people are trying to blow it out of proportion and trying to defame India, raising it to national forum,” he added.
This came after outgoing vice-president Hamid Ansari asserted that “there is a feeling of unease and a sense of insecurity among the Muslims in the country.” In his last interview on Wednesday, before demitting the office, Ansari said that the Muslims in the country were experiencing a “feeling of unease
“A sense of insecurity is creeping in as a result of the dominant mood created by some and the resultant intolerance and vigilantism,” Ansari said, in an interview to Rajya Sabha TV. He referred to incidents of lynching and alleged killings as a “breakdown of Indian values, breakdown of the ability of the authorities at different levels in different places to be able to enforce what should be normal law enforcing work and over all the very fact that Indianness of any citizen being questioned is a disturbing thought.”
