NEW DELHI: Widely hailed as a gentleman and a scholar, M Hamid Ansari today stepped down as the vice president of India, bringing to an end what was largely an uncontroversial tenure with unexpected outspoken comments that stirred a national debate.
The soft-spoken former diplomat — the only vice president to serve two terms after S Radhakrishnan — marked his departure with words of concern about threats to plurality and about insecurity among Muslims in a television interview yesterday.
“I am an Indian and that is it,” he said, describing as “unnecessary” calls for assertion of a citizen’s commitment to nationalism.
Ansari, 80, was first elected Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman in 2007, when he defeated the NDA’s candidate Najma Heptullah. In 2012, he was re-elected to the post when he won against the BJP’s Jaswant Singh by 252 votes. (AGENCIES)
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