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Secularism missing from government officials’ dictionary: Hamid Ansari

Secularism missing from government officials' dictionary: Hamid Ansari
Secularism missing from government officials' dictionary: Hamid Ansari

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Former Vice-President of India Hamid Ansari has said that basic principles have fallen and the word secularism has become ‘almost missing’ from the government officials’ glossary.

Hamid Ansari wrote in his autobiography ‘By Many a Happy Accident’ that “the decline of basic principles includes the failure of other social and political forces who were responsible for preventing this decline”.

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Hamid Ansari believes that constitutional values ​​like inclusive culture, brotherhood and scientific thinking are also gradually disappearing from the political arena and contrary beliefs are being promoted.

Hamid Ansari, who was in the Indian Foreign Service before becoming the Vice-President, argues that there is a serious threat to the rule of law, and the reasons behind this are the lack of efficiency of government establishments and arbitrary decisions.

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He has written in his autobiography that the success of popularity is not a success of any ideology but a strategy to gain power and stay in power, whether it is to plan, criminalize the entire opposition and show fear of foreign threats .

“It was assisted by authoritarianism, nationalism and majoritarianism. This ideological potion, premised simplistically on the desirability of oneness of language, ethnicity, religion, territory and culture was administered successfully to a little over a third of the electorate,” he wrote.

Ansari revealed that one day Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unscheduled visit to his Rajya Sabha office. “After I got over my surprise, I made the customary gestures of hospitality. He said that ‘there are expectations of higher responsibilities for you but you are not helping me’.”

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“I said that my work in the Rajya Sabha, and outside, is public knowledge. ‘Why are bills not being passed in the din?’ he asked. I replied that the Leader of the House and his colleagues, when in Opposition, had appreciated the ruling that no bills will be passed in the din and that normal procedures of obtaining consent will be observed.”

Hamid Ansari claims that all this has been “proved in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections”.

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