A feeling of unease and insecurity is creeping in among Muslims in India, vice president Hamid Ansari said on Thursday, joining a growing number of leaders who have expressed concerns over attacks on minorities.<\/p>\n
Vice president-elect M Venkaiah Naidu on\u2009Thursday rejected as \u201cpolitical propaganda\u201d the view that there is a sense of insecurity among minorities in the country, apparently a rejoinder to outgoing vice president Hamid Ansari.<\/p>\n
Though Naidu did not name anyone, his comments are seen as a response to Ansari\u2019s remarks in a TV interview that there was unease and a sense of insecurity among Muslims in the country, and that \u201cambience of acceptance\u201d is now under threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome 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,\u201d Naidu<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He also 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.<\/p>\n
There is tolerance that is why democracy is so successful, he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The former BJP president also cautioned against creating divide in the nation by singling out one community, saying it will draw adverse reaction from other communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you single out one community, other communities will take it otherwise. That is why we say all are equal. Appeasement for none justice for all,\u201d the 68-year-leader and former Union minister said.<\/p>\n
He said history has proved that there is no discrimination against minorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey (minorities) got in prominent positions including constitutional responsibilities because there is no discrimination, and also on account of their merit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Noting that India\u2019s uniqueness is its unity in diversity, he said \u2018sarva dharm sadbhav\u2019 and secularism is in the mind and blood of India.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndia is secular not because of political leaders but because of its people and civilisation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ansari\u2019s remarks come against the backdrop of incidents of alleged intolerance and violence by self-proclaimed cow protectors, for which opposition parties have attacked the central government.<\/p>\n
Asked about incidents of alleged intolerance, Naidu said India is a huge country and there could be some \u201cstray\u201d occurrences, which are \u201cnothing but aberrations\u201d.<\/p>\n
He, however, added that \u201cNobody can justify attacks on fellow citizens on the basis of community\u201d. Such incidents should be condemned and action should be taken by appropriate authorities, he said.<\/p>\n
Naidu also said that some people blow out of proportion such incidents for political considerations. Some go to the extent of \u201cdefaming\u201d the county by raising such issues at international forum.<\/p>\n
Some do it to create rift between communities and derive political mileage, he said, adding the basic problem arises due to vote bank politics and due to treating a community as vote bank.<\/p>\n
A day before he takes oath as India\u2019s next vice president, he said his advice to politicians is not to drag communities into politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A feeling of unease and insecurity is creeping in among Muslims in India, vice president Hamid Ansari said on Thursday, joining a growing number of leaders who have expressed concerns over attacks on minorities. Vice president-elect M Venkaiah Naidu on\u2009Thursday rejected as \u201cpolitical propaganda\u201d the view that there is a sense of insecurity among minorities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[312],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1836,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834\/revisions\/1836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}