Having kept silent for ten years and on the day of demitting office, former Vice President Hamid Ansari expressed his opinion that "ambience of acceptance" is now under threat, said that a feeling of unease and a sense of insecurity is prevailing among the Muslims in the country.
Why did Ansari make this statement?
BJP leadership is certainly peeved over this. Plain talking was done by none other than Indresh Kumar, the RSS ideologue.
"Hamid Ansari can go to any country where he feels secure. Unfortunately, Ansari received no support from any quarter. Even Muslims came out against him. He was secular for ten years when he was in the chair. Now he has become a fundamentalist Muslim," Kumar said.
Close friends of Ansari in diplomatic circles, who served with him and under him, expressed shock - especially considering the stature Hamid Ansari had. For both the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance, Ansari shared his skills.
For Manmohan Singh, it was on the nuclear treaty issue, and for PM Modi on terrorism issues. Also, Ansari visited Botswana, Croatia and the Czech Republic - places where no other Indian leaders visited.
Considering his strong diplomatic skills, such a display at the fag end of his tenure is shocking.
So who thrust this "acceptance" idea on Hamid Ansari?
Insiders who are familiar with the draft and rehearsals of the speech point out to a few Muslim thinkers - including that of Shumsher Shariff, the secretary to the Vice President.
A few days before this interview by Hamid Ansari, sources say there was a discussion between Shariff and Ansari, where it is believed that the strategy was worked out to speak to Rajya Sabha TV.
Interestingly, Shumsher Shariff has provoked such a controversy in his earlier stint as Joint Secretary to the then President KR Narayanan. It was the duo of Gopal Krishna Gandhi and Shumsher Shariff who submitted a draft letter to KR Narayanan on the Godhra incident in 2002 which was to be addressed to the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Till today the contents of that letter have not appeared before the media. Even in 2016, the Presidential Secretariat refused to provide a copy to the Central Information Commission under the Right to Information.
The BJP leadership was waiting for Hamid Ansari to demit his office. Sources say that the many in that leadership believe that Ansari was leaving his office, and the Rajya Sabha TV, in a mess - with anomalies and irregularities that have so far not been investigated.
And while Ansari's conduct in the Rajya Sabha in the first half of his tenure was spotless, in the second half, after the BJP improved its position, his anger also seemed to increase. After all, should the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha have permitted the Central Reserve Police to give protection inside the Rajya Sabha during the voting of the Women's Reservation Bill?
Also, it assumed that the Modi government would have passed the Goods and Services Taxes bill in the in April 2017 itself, if Ansari had not have laid a ground rule that as presiding officer, he would not permit the GST bill to be passed amid 'din'.
All of this is a sad reflection on his tenure. It seems to this correspondent that Ansari was given wrong political advice.
However, there are kudos due to Ansari as well - for his regulation of the Zero hour with three minutes for each member for example. Ansari also ensured that the Question Hour was pushed from eleven am to noon, so that the Members of Parliament will not be playing to the gallery but concentrate on their real task of bringing the Government to account.
However, like Pranab Mukherjee, Hamid Ansari should have also quietly left the highest position without creating or getting into a controversy. Pranab da is a politician, but Ansari has been a diplomat. But on the last day, Ansari failed to rise to the expectations of intellectuals and seems to have demitted his office under a cloud.
This was unnecessary.
R Rajagopalan is a senior corrspondent in New Delhi. The views expressed here are his own and do reflect that of Asianet Newsable.)
