Enriching journey of objectivity, ideas

Vivek Katju

First, a disclosure. Hamid Ansari was one of my ‘gurus’ in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS). He emphasised, by precept and example, the virtues of discretion, deep study and reflection, dispassionate analysis and objectivity. His autobiography ‘By Many a Happy Accident’ bears testimony to his firm adherence to these qualities amidst the demands of diplomatic work. Nor, after retirement from the IFS, did he give up these attributes in the academia or as a university Vice-Chancellor, as chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities, or in his two terms in the high office of Vice President of India.

At the beginning of college life, Ansari, after reading Harold Laski’s ‘An Introduction to Politics’, decided to shift from the science stream to the humanities. That changed not only the course of his life, but possibly led him to consider a career in the civil service. A ‘happy accident’ led him to the IFS. That was beneficial for the country, for Ansari made an ideal diplomat who actively promoted the country’s interests abroad.

Ansari spent the major part of his diplomatic career in West Asia and in India’s western neighbourhood — Iraq, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in Afghanistan and Iran; he was India’s ambassador to the last three nations. Over a period of three-and-a-half decades, he closely observed an area for which he has had an abiding scholarly interest. During the period of his diplomatic service, this entire region witnessed enormous turbulence, including violence and revolution, the rise and waning of nationalism, the growth and consolidation of Islamic identities in the post-colonial era and in some cases — Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but also Iran — the impact of enormous and sudden wealth on traditional societies and polities. Ansari’s accounts of his assignments capture some of these fascinating transformations even as they relate India’s ties with these countries and some interesting diplomatic events and matters concerning his family’s journey.

Ansari also served in the Indian mission in Brussels, as ambassador to Australia and in the significant assignment of Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. The last job was at a time when Pakistan’s global diplomatic onslaught on developments in J&K was intense. His quiet but persuasive diplomacy at the UN was of great help in India combating it successfully.

Ansari has never sought to publicise his accomplishments and has always been circumspect, adhering to the well-known bureaucratic principle of need to know. An author, however, has an obligation to his readers as well. They want to know a full account of interesting incidents as those concerning Israeli interference in Indian politics before the 1971 election (page 44), or of the Asadullah Sarwari incident causing Afghan President Najibullah’s outburst (pages 86-87). In both cases, the incomplete accounts can only frustrate them. Perhaps, in a later edition, Ansari will shed his reticence.

After he hung up his foreign service boots, Ansari took to multi-faceted work making significant contributions in all that he undertook. All through these two decades and more, he has, as a patriot who has a deep commitment to the national well-being, propagated his conviction that the country needs to firmly adhere to its inclusive and plural values and ways and eschew the drive towards painting it in a monochromatic hue. His concern for the welfare of the Muslim minority and need for its condition to improve, even as he has urged it to introspect and become a full participant in national life, is not driven by sectional interest but on the principle of inclusive growth. It is his desire for the state to “develop a formula of equidistance and minimum involvement” (page 304) that is problematic, especially in view of some of the Directive Principles of State Policy of the Constitution.

Through the past two decades, even as Vice President, Ansari extensively expressed his views on social and political issues of ideological and administrative kinds. A chapter of the book has given precises of his speeches and addresses. They all bear the imprint of his scholarship and vision. Serious students of public affairs need to ponder over them for they are the product of thoughtfulness and experience. It would have been useful for the general reader though if Ansari had summarised his worldview in a running cohesive account.

Even while moving with men and women and interacting so sincerely and even charmingly with them, this work clearly indicates that Ansari’s passion has been for the life of the mind. Clearly, he has been happiest in the world of ideas relating to statecraft and social evolution and in poetic works reflecting the milieu of his Indo-Persianate cultural background, leavened with modernisation. That era is rapidly passing all over South Asia. And new patterns of public culture are emerging without the urbanity of the past era. But these are part of historical processes which both in their political and social manifestation are naturally causing Ansari deep distress.

His autobiography is a must read for all those who care about the country, especially those who may completely disagree with his worldview. They, in particular, would find much food for thought.