As Jairam Ramesh seeks action on PM Modi’s ‘Hamid Ansari remarks’, echoes of a rancour

The letter refers to Modi’s reply to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address in the Lok Sabha on July 2, and mentions that the PM said, “No matter how many numbers they claim, when we came in 2014, our strength in the Rajya Sabha was very low, and the Chair’s inclination was somewhat on the other side.”

Ramesh, who earlier sought expunging of the remarks, said that while the PM did not name Ansari, it was clear whom he meant. “The accusation attributed to Dr Hamid Ansari of ‘leaning’ towards the Opposition… is wholly unacceptable and grossly derogatory to say the least, apart from being completely false.”

The Congress leader went on to mention other incidents of Modi “targeting” Ansari, including during his farewell speech for the then Vice-President in August 2017. “No prime minister has ever attacked a former Speaker of the Lok Sabha or chairman of the Rajya Sabha in the manner in which Shri Narendra Modi has done,” the Congress leader said.

The PM has set a new low for the office of the Prime Minister of India, Ramesh said. “Such defamatory remarks… attributing derogatory motives to the former Chairman of Rajya Sabha when he was not present to defend himself is tantamount to grave disregard and disrespect to the high office of the Chairman, Rajya Sabha, as well as to the Rajya Sabha itself. I, therefore, seek privilege proceedings against the prime minister in the matter,” Ramesh said in his letter to Dhankhar.

The last time Ansari found himself at the receiving end of BJP remarks was in July 2022, after media reports quoted a “Pakistani journalist”, Nusrat Mirza, as saying Ansari had invited him to India and that he had shared the information he collected during these visits – reportedly between 2005 and 2011 – with Pakistan’s ISI.

The BJP had then demanded that both Ansari and the Congress, which was in power during the alleged visit, should share the details of these trips.

Ansari had denounced the BJP’s charges as a “litany of falsehood”, saying that while he was bound by “the commitment to national security” and would not comment, “The Government of India has all the information and is the only authority to tell the truth.”

A career diplomat, Ansari was picked for the Vice-President’s post by the UPA and was only the second person after Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan to hold the second highest constitutional post in India for two successive full terms. Three years of his second tenure were under the Modi government.

Earlier in 2022, the Union Ministry of External Affairs had reacted sharply to Ansari’s comments during a virtual panel discussion organised by the Indian American Muslim Council, along with four US lawmakers. Ansari had talked about the emergence of trends that “interpose a new and imaginary practice of cultural nationalism… (and) seek to present an electoral majority in the guise of a religious majority… It wants to distinguish citizens on the basis of their faith”.

The Ministry had reacted saying that the track record of the event organisers was as well-known as “the biases and political interests of the participants”.

Just before his retirement, speaking at the annual convocation of the National Law School of India University in Bengaluru, Ansari had expressed concern over “enhanced apprehensions of insecurity amongst segments of our citizen body, particularly Dalits, Muslims and Christians”.

Modi had seemed to strike back at a farewell speech for Ansari in the Rajya Sabha in August 2017, saying: “You were associated with West Asia for a major part of your career as a diplomat. You spent many years of your life in that circle… in that thought… For a major part after your retirement, whether it was in the Minority Commission or Aligarh Muslim University, you remained in that circle. But for 10 years, you had a different responsibility. Every moment, you had to remain confined to the Constitution and you tried your best to fulfill that responsibility… It is possible that there was some restlessness within you as well, but from today you will not face that crisis… You now have the joy of being liberated, and the opportunity to work, think and speak according to your core beliefs.”

Then, soon after Ansari’s tenure ended, while campaigning for the Gujarat Assembly elections in December 2017, Modi had accused Pakistan of interfering in the polls, alleging that former PM Manmohan Singh and Ansari were part of a “secret meeting” at Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s residence in which some Pakistani officials were present.

Following an uproar in Parliament, the government had clarified in the Rajya Sabha: “Let me categorically state that the Prime Minister did not question nor did he mean to question the commitment to this nation of either Dr Manmohan Singh or Hamid Ansari.”

In his autobiography By Many a Happy Accident, released after his retirement, Ansari referred to disagreements between him and the Modi government starting soon after it came to power. He wrote that a demand was raised “by the government floor managers that a Bill may be allowed to be passed (despite) din in the Rajya Sabha”. “It was pointed out… that while there were instances in the past when Bills were indeed passed in the din, that happened with a necessary precondition that the government had a majority in the House… However, in the current case, the ruling NDA did not have a majority (in the Rajya Sabha).”

He added that while he had taken the same position under the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government, it had taken cognizance of his “principled stand”. “The NDA, on the other hand, felt that its majority in the Lok Sabha gave it the ‘moral’ right to prevail over procedural impediments in the Rajya Sabha.”

Ansari also wrote in the book about Modi dropping in at his Rajya Sabha office and telling him, “there are expectations of higher responsibilities (for) you but you are not helping me”. He said Modi also complained about Rajya Sabha TV coverage, and that he had pointed out that he had no editorial control over it.