Overt and covert ideologies are trying to divide India on an imagined criteria of "us and them", former vice president Hamid Ansari remarked on Friday, during the virtual launch of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's book 'The Battle of Belonging'. Former VP said that even before COVID-19, society became a victim of two other pandemics -- religiosity and strident nationalism.
The former vice president further stated that "there is a passionate plea for an ideal of India (in the book), an India that was taken for granted by our generation" and now is seemingly endangered by "overt and covert ideas and ideologies that seek to segment it on imagined criteria of us and them".
"The COVID-19 as a pandemic is bad enough, but before it our society became a victim of two other pandemics -- religiosity and strident nationalism. Religiosity is defined as extreme religious ardour, denoting exaggerated embodiment, involvement or zeal for certain aspects of religious activity enforced through social and even governmental pressure," said Ansari, who served as India's vice president from 2007-2017.
Calling it an "ideological poison", Ansari said that strident nationalism has no hesitation in transcending and transgressing individual rights.
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