Outgoing vice-prez Ansari warns India is becoming an ‘intolerant society’

Outgoing vice-president Hamid Ansari said that India was becoming an “intolerant society”. “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 overall the very fact that the Indianness of any citizen is being questioned is a disturbing thought,” he said.

In a 52-minute interview to a television channel, covering a range of subjects, he also said this propensity to be able to assert your nationalism day in and day out was unnecessary.

He was speaking on the issues of cow vigilante attacks, mob lynchings and people not shouting “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” being told to leave the country.

He added that India had been a plural society for centuries, not for seventy years, and that it had a certain ambience of acceptance “which is under threat”.

India had been a plural society for centuries, not for 70 years, and that it had a certain ambience of acceptance which is under threat

— Hamid Ansari, Vice-president

The vice-president told the television channel that he raised the concerns of growing intolerance in the country with the Prime Minister and other ministers, also. On being asked about their response, he said, “Well, there is always an explanation and there is always a reason. Now it is a matter of judgment, whether you accept the explanation, the reasoning and the rationale.”