Indian democracy is thriving, says UPA Vice-Presidential nominee

New Delhi, Aug 2: UPA-Left Vice Presidential candidate Hamid Ansari, who is poised for his innings at the seat of Indian democracy, says the system has worked very well for the country and minces no words in dismissing the sceptics about its efficacy.

''The Parliamentary democracy is thriving in the country as the successive elections have proved it,'' Mr Ansari today said talking to UNI.

The writer-diplomat-scholar said that for the past 60 years, the system has worked well, though not denying the fact that it came under various strains during this period.

But for a large and varied country like India, where illiteracy and poverty were still major problems, some challenges to the system could not be ruled out, and those who make it as their basis for rejecting the system were not right, added Mr Ansari.

''By and large, the parliamentary democracy was a success. I have not an iota of doubt about it,'' he said.

Mr Ansari, a former career diplomat who has served in various countries and has first hand knowledge of the working of the systems there, said the main reason that has safeguarded democracy from attack by various forces was the Constitution.

''Our Constitution is the gist of the best laws and practices in successful democracies of the world. But the architects of the Constitution have finely tempered borrowings from others with some features keeping in view the country's political, social and historical background,'' he said.

Though, Mr Ansari would dismiss all queries about how he was preparing for his new responsibilities saying '' let the time come'', he would not agree wih those who think he was not politically qualified to conduct the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha of which he would be ex-officio chairman if elected as Vice-President, which was almost certain going by the numbers the UPA-Left have in Parliament.

''If forty years of diplomacy is not political experience, then I wonder what it is,'' he said.

Mr Ansari, who has earned reputation as a consensus maker during forty years of his diplomatic career and deft handling of difficult diplomatic situation, looked confident about using those skills in the Rajya Sabha too. ''Morover, he said, the Rajya Sabha proceedings are conducted according to rules, which are very elaborate and leave no scope for any confusion. If one justly and stricly followed rules, there would be no problem,'' he added.

However, Mr Ansari, whom wife Salma praised for giving adequate space to her in life to do whatever she liked and ensured all her rights as a woman, steered clear of the issue of reservaion for women in Parliament.

When asked about his views, he said it was a matter to be decided by Parliament.

Mr Ansari, who was the chairman of the working group on 'Confidence building measures across segments of society in the State,' established by the Second Round Table Conference of the Prime Minister on Jammu and Kashmir in 2006, said he was totally optimistic about a peaceful solution of the Kashmir issue.

''The progress being made by India and Pakistan on the issue are significant and I hope the end result will be good,'' he added.

Mr Ansari joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1961. He served as Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, and as High Commissioner to Australia.

He was also India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations based in New York.

Among his other important assignments is Vice-Chancellorship of Aligarh Muslim University (200-2002). Besides he was a Visiting Professor at the Centre for West Asian and African Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University and at the Academy for Third World Studies in Jamia Millia Islamia.

He has also been honoured with Padma Shri in 1984.

Mr Ansari hails from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, though he was born in Kolkata in 1937. He is the grand-nephew of freedom figher Dr Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, who Presided over the Madras session of the Indian National Congress in 1927.

UNI