A day after outgoing Vice President Hamid Ansari said Muslims were feeling insecure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said he (Ansari) will be free to pursue his "core thinking" once he demits office.
In his remarks in the Rajya Sabha, where Ansari was given a farewell on his last day in office, Modi hailed his role in the past 10 years and said Ansari had tried his best to live up to it.
The prime minister referred to the 100 years of public life of Ansari's forefathers and said they were aligned with the Congress and Khilafat Movement.
Modi recalled Ansari's diplomatic career during which he spent many years in West Asia and his role on retirement as the Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University and as the Chairman of Minorities Commission.
"Many years of your life were spent in that circle. You stayed in that atmosphere, with that thinking and debating with those people. After retirement your engagement mostly remained the same... But in the last 10 years, you had a different responsibility. Every moment was spent in the ambit of Constitution and running it (Rajya Sabha). You tried your best to run it. Maybe there was some uneasiness within you. But from now onwards, you will not face that difficulty. You will also feel free and work, think and speak according to your core thinking."
Ansari told the Rajya Sabha TV that there was a feeling of unease and a sense of insecurity creeping in among the Muslims in the country against the current backdrop of intolerance and vigilante violence.
He suggested that Ansari, whose term ends today, should write a book on how the functioning of the Rajya Sabha could be made more effective and the institution "even more credible".
The prime minister said the various decisions that Ansari took as the chairman of the Rajya Sabha have something concrete to offer.
He brought order in the house enabling the government to complete its business and such decisions could help others to understand how to improve its functioning, Modi said at a farewell function in honour of the vice president in Parliament house complex.
Earlier, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya had criticised the vice president for his comment that there was a sense of insecurity among Muslims and said such a "petty" remark was not expected from someone in his position.
He also wondered if Ansari was looking for "political shelter" after retirement.
"I condemn his comments. He has made political comments as he is retiring. He is still the vice president and such comments do not suit his office's dignity. It seems he is making such comments to find political shelter after retirement," he said.
In an apparent reference to Ansari, Vice President-elect M. Venkaiah Naidu rejected as "political propaganda" the view that there is a sense of insecurity among minorities.
Though Naidu did not name anyone, his comments were seen as a response to Ansari's remarks that there was an unease and a sense of insecurity among Muslims, and that "ambience of acceptance" was now under threat.
