“We pretend to be a democracy, we pretend to swear by a Constitution”: Hamid Ansari

"We pretend to be a democracy, we pretend to swear by a Constitution": former Vice President Hamid Ansari to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ......................................... In an interview to discuss a statement made by Ritesh Tiwari, a newly elected BJP MLA from Bengal, that he won’t do any work for his Muslim constituents because, he claims, they did not vote for him, India’s former Vice President has said “We pretend to be a democracy, we pretend to swear by a Constitution” but if this is the ideology of the ruling party then India could be heading in the same direction as countries in Europe and elsewhere where democracy deviated and faltered and the countries transformed into other forms of rule and governance. Although he did not go so far, it seems Hamid Ansari was hinting at Hitler’s Germany in the 1930s. Here are a few excerpts from the interview: “If that is the prevailing ideology of the winning party then it’s a very unfortunate comment on the system we pretend to operate … do not forget we pretend to be a democracy, we pretend to swear by a Constitution and the first page of that Constitution, which is the Preamble, has certain basic principles spelt out there. Does this statement of his (Ritesh Tiwari) conform to any of those principles?” “If you swear by the Constitution which we swear by, if you swear by the Preamble which we swear by, then you cannot draw a distinction between one citizen and another citizen.” “Are you going to ignore 15% of your population? Is that what you mean by fraternity? Is that what you mean by the last word of the Preamble? If so, I am afraid there are other examples on record – and you know them very well as I do – where democracies have deviated from being democracies into whatever other name you can use. There are examples in Europe, there are examples elsewhere. I hope we are not going on that (path). It would be a very sad day and a very sad commentary on the people of India.” “Can a political party seriously say that it does not care for 15% of its population? It cannot do that … the Muslims are the biggest minority in the country and together with other minorities, Christians, Sikhs and others, they constitute 20% of the population of India which means one-fifth of the population. You cannot operate democracy on that basis (of ignoring them). You can operate any other form of governance but not a democracy.” Join The Wire's Youtube Membership and get exclusive content, member-only emojis, live interaction with The Wire's founders, editors and reporters and much more. Memberships to The Wire Crew start at Rs 89/month. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChWtJey46brNr7qHQpN6KLQ/join