Unease among Muslims

Former vice president Hamid Ansari said that there is a feeling of unease and a sense of insecurity among the Muslims in the country, asserting the "ambience of acceptance" is now under threat.

Ansari, whose second five-year term as the Vice-President ended yesterday, made these remarks in the backdrop of incidents of "intolerance" and cow vigilantism.

Stating that he had flagged the issue of "intolerance" with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues, Ansari, 80, also described the questioning of citizens over their love for India as a "disturbing thought".

Asked in an interview on Rajya Sabha TV whether he shared his concerns with the prime minister, Ansari said that he had. "Yes...yes. But what passes between the Vice President and the Prime Minister in the nature of things must remain in the domain of privileged conversation," Ansari, who is also the Rajya Sabha Chairman, said.

He said that he has also flagged the issue with other union ministers. "Well, there is always an explanation and there is always a reason. Now it is a matter of judgement, whether you accept the explanation, you accept the reasoning and its rationale," he said when asked about the response of the government.

In the interview on Wednesday, Ansari referred to incidents of lynching and 'ghar wapsi' and alleged killings of rationalists 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."

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader Shahnawaz Hussain hit back at Ansari for his comments. While speaking to ANI, Hussain said that there is no better country for Muslims than India dismissing Ansari's claims that there is unease amongst the community.