Naqvi hits out at Hamid Ansari over remarks at US's Muslim body event

Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi hit out at former Vice-President Hamid Ansari over the latter's "cultural nationalism" remarks he made addressing an event organised by the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) on Republic Day.Naqvi said the event attended by Hamid Ansari on the Republic Day was organised by a group that had a "link with SIMI [Students' Islamic Movement of India] and ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence]" of the Pakistan Army. Addresing a press conferance in New Delhi on Thursday, Naqvi said that It is strange that the same person, sitting on a Constitutional post, used the PFI (Popular Front of India) platform earlier.Country always follows the principle of tolerance and secularism," Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said. He said, "We believe in cultural nationalism also.

Speaking at the event through video-link Hamid Ansari said, "In recent years, we have experienced the emergence of trends and practices that dispute the well-established principle of civic nationalism and interposes a new and imaginary practice of cultural nationalism." "It seeks to present an electoral majority in the guise of a religious majority and monopolise political power. It wants to distinguish citizens on the basis of their faith, give vent to intolerance, insinuate otherness, and promote disquiet and insecurity...some of its recent manifestations are chilling," Hamid Ansari was quoted in an IAMC press release as saying.