Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Controversial statements by former Indian VP' that was published in Newsband

Controversial statements by former Indian VP

Former Vice-President of India Hamid Ansari, in his recent interview, expressed his deep concern about the state of India’s institutions, aggressive nationalism and erosion of values. According to him, our institutions are not performing as expected. There are three major pillars to the institutional structure – the legislature, executive and judiciary and Justice is not being delivered fast enough, he says.

Here are some of his observations like “Some of the degeneration in institutional structures has been going on for quite some time. Look at the functioning of Parliament. It sat for a hundred days earlier, it sits for 50-60 days now.”

Hamid Ansari was a diplomat for 40 years, from being the junior-most diplomat to a very senior one. He was in public office for 10 years and he enjoyed the 10 years.

Whether it is Md. Azharuddin or Hamid Ansari they play religion card when in a defensive position. Why do they forget the top positions given to them without reference to religion? Hamid Ansari is talking like a typical Congress Man and not like Ex Vice President. It is clear that he is uncomfortable with PM Shri Narendra Modi led NDA government. However, if intellectuals like Shri Ansari say that everything is wrong with this NDA govt., it will hardly serve any purpose. There has to be debate between ruling party and opposition; the situation which prevails today is not good as there is none. How many of those who are critical of PM Shri Modi and his govt. are ready to do an honest self-examination cum reassessment of performance of the UPA government and other governments

Shri Ansari talks about ‘substantive democracy’ but would that be a reality when ruling party and opposition think that the other is always wrong? Criticism of Shri Ansari of NDA and PM Shri Modi would not be considered impartial and fair if he does not find out whether & other secular parties’ politics is really secular and why educated Indians disapprove it.

It appears that he lacks any understanding of Indian culture. The plural society he refers to was built on invasions, swords and guns and rule of minority. That correction is not digestible to many dancing on foreign media notes.

We are one of the best nations on earth. Unfortunately we lack enough hands of, visionary leadership with far-sighted views, pro-active approach and result-oriented efforts, all fully focused towards one single goal "National Growth". We must embark on a quarter-century rehabilitation program to achieve all our goals as we can see China has practically achieved during 1990 to 2015. Identification and exploration of our children's or youth's inner potentials, supporting them with sophisticated education and training should be our priority. Backlog of cases in the courts, having a calendar for Parliament and assembly are definitely points that need to be addressed.